The Intricate Structure of HH 508, the Brightest Microjet in the Orion Nebula

Abstract

We present Magellan adaptive optics Hα imaging of HH 508, which has the highest surface brightness among protostellar jets in the Orion Nebula. We find that HH 508 actually has a shorter component to the west, and a longer and knotty component to the east. The east component has a kink at 0.″3 from the jet-driving star θ ¹ Ori B₂, so it may have been deflected by the wind/radiation from the nearby θ ¹ Ori B₁B₅. The origin of both components is unclear, but if each of them is a separate jet, then θ ¹ Ori B₂ may be a tight binary. Alternatively, HH 508 may be a slow-moving outflow, and each component represents an illuminated cavity wall. The ionization front surrounding θ ¹ Ori B₂B₃ does not directly face θ ¹ Ori B₁B₅, suggesting that the EUV radiation from θ ¹ Ori C plays a dominant role in affecting the morphology of proplyds even in the vicinity of θ ¹ Ori B₁B₅. Finally, we report an Hα blob that might be ejected by the binary proplyd LV 1.