Runaway Young Stars near the Orion Nebula

Abstract

The star-forming region of the Orion Nebula (ONC) is ideal to study the stellar dynamics of young stars in a clustered environment. Using Gaia DR2 we search for pre-main sequence stars with unusually high proper motions that may be representative of a dynamical ejection from unstable young triple systems or other close three-body encounters. We identify 26 candidate stars that are likely to have had such an encounter in the last 1 Myr. Nine of these stars could be traced back to the densest central-most region of the ONC, the Trapezium, while five others have likely interactions with other OB-type stars in the cluster. Seven stars originate from other nearby populations within the Orion Complex that coincidentally scattered toward the ONC. A definitive point of origin cannot be identified for the remaining sources. These observations shed light on the frequency of the ejection events in young clusters.