Imprints of Stellar Encounters in the ONC
Abstract
External destruction of protoplanetary discs acts mainly due to two mechanisms: gravitational drag by stellar encounters and evaporation by stellar winds and radiation. It is an important question whether any of these mechanisms is important in the stellar evolution process. We focus on the effect of stellar encounters and investigate if there are any observables that could trace this mechanism in young stellar clusters. An analysis of observational data of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) and accompanying n-body simulations both provide evidence for encounters of star-disc systems in the ONC, eventually leading to substantial disk disruption.
- Publication:
-
Dynamical Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems
- Pub Date:
- May 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921308015317
- Bibcode:
- 2008IAUS..246...67O
- Keywords:
-
- stellar dynamics;
- methods: data analysis;
- n-body simulations;
- stars: kinematics;
- circumstellar matter