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Published Online November 29, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1149926

Reports

Submitted on August 30, 2007
Accepted on November 15, 2007

Million-Degree Plasma Pervading the Extended Orion Nebula

Manuel Güdel 1*, Kevin R. Briggs 2, Thierry Montmerle 3, Marc Audard 4, Luisa Rebull 5, Stephen L. Skinner 6

1 Paul Scherrer Institut, Würenlingen and Villigen, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.; Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany.; Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.; Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier – CNRS, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France.
2 Paul Scherrer Institut, Würenlingen and Villigen, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.; Institute of Astronomy, ETH Zentrum, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
3 Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier – CNRS, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France.
4 ISDC, Chemin d'Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland.; Geneva Observatory, University of Geneva, Ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland.
5 Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 220-6, Pasadena, CA 91125.
6 CASA, UCB 389, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0389, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Manuel Güdel , E-mail: guedel{at}astro.phys.ethz.ch

Most stars form as members of large associations within dense, very cold (10–100 K) molecular clouds. The nearby giant molecular cloud in Orion hosts several thousand stars of ages less than a few million years, many of which are located in or around the famous Orion Nebula, a prominent gas structure illuminated and ionized by a small group of massive stars (the Trapezium). We present X-ray observations obtained with the X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite XMM-Newton revealing that a hot plasma with a temperature of 1.7-2.1 million K pervades the southwest extension of the nebula. The plasma flows into the adjacent interstellar medium. This X-ray outflow phenomenon must be widespread throughout our Galaxy.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)