Census Finds Unknown Young Stars of Orion Amateur stargazers may
spot the Orion Nebula as a fuzzy patch in the constellation
Orion, but they cannot see an interstellar birthing ground that
spans the region of sky from above Orion's head to below his
feet. Now astronomers have completed the most wide-ranging
census of baby stars in and around the Orion nebula, and found a
stellar nursery that's both chaotic and crowded. The work
represents the first complete study of young stars, their
gaseous clouds of dust and supersonic jets of hydrogen molecules
shooting out from the poles of each star. Jets arise as young
stars are born from a rotating cloud of gas and dust, but
usually die out once a star has fully ignited and stopped
consuming the surrounding material. In this case, the jets
became signals that pinpointed the location of baby stars hidden
within the stellar birthing grounds. "With such a large number
of young stars, we can study the 'demographics' of star birth,"
said Tom Megeath, an astronomer at the U