AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 136. Star Formation Young Stars
Oral, Thursday, January 9, 2003, 2:00-3:30pm, 606-607

[Previous] | [Session 136] | [Next]


[136.02] On the origin of the IMF: First detection of a low-mass star ejected from a triple stellar system

L. Loinard, L.F. Rodriguez, M. Rodriguez (IA UNAM, Morelia Mexico)

Using high-resolution, multi-epoch VLA observations, we have detected orbital motions in several low-luminosity protobinary systems in the Taurus and rho-Ophiuchus molecular complexes. The masses obtained from Kepler's third law are of the order of 0.5 to 1 Msun, as would have been expected for such low-mass protostars.

In addition, in one of the sources studied (a triple system in Taurus), one of the three component appears to have been recently ejected from the system. During the first 15 of the 20 years covered by the observations, this component has been on a closed elliptical orbit with a velocity of a few km/s, but in the last 5 years, it has started to spiral out at high speed (20 km/s).

Such an ejection is not unexpected in a triple system, because such systems are thought to exhibit chaotic behaviours. However, this is the first time that it is detected directly. The implications for the IMF will be discussed


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: l.loinard@astrosmo.unam.mx

[Previous] | [Session 136] | [Next]

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.