The Bullets in Orion

The above image nicely illustrates the image quality now routinely available with UFTI on UKIRT. The data were taken in fairly average seeing conditions (~ 0.5"). The bullets themselves radiate out from the luminous infrared protostar IRC2 (the white patch centre-bottom). The mechanism that produces these remarkable, explosive features is as-yet unknown, though from their observed properties the bullets may be related to Herbig-Haro-type shock fronts in either one very poorly-collimated outflow or in many individual jets.

These data were obtained and "broadcast live" via the internet during the opening (in October 1998) of the Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. Courtesy: Ant Chrysostomou.

More recent images of the Orion bullets were obtained with the Fabry-Perot Interferometer. This "add-on" facility allows us to increase the contrast between the molecular hydrogen emission from the bullets and the diffuse continuum emission from background stars and nebulosity in the centre of the region. The bullets thus appear clearer. The image also shows more of the region to the south.

Data obtained by Chris Davis and Malcolm Currie in November 2000 to test new reduction scripts for FP imaging with UFTI.