| Abstract |
Massive stars tend to form in groups at the centers of high-pressure molecular cloud cores that give birth to clusters where they undergo a rich variety of dynamical interactions with sibling stars and dense gas. The resulting non-hierarchical multiples tend to decay into tight binaries plus ejected high-velocity stars which are surprisingly common among O-stars. I will present laser-guide star adaptive-optics imaging of the explosive Orion Molecular Core 1 outflow powered by massive stars dynamically ejected from their parent core only 500 years ago. I will show evidence for a pulsed, precessing jet emerging from Cepheus A where the circumstellar disk of a moderate-mass star may have assisted in the capture of a sibling star into an eccentric, non-coplanar orbit.
These results illustrate some of the complexities of cluster birth and show that dynamical interactions have recently occurred in the two nearest sites of active high-mass star formation and are therefore likely to be common in cluster-forming environments.
They provide insights into the astrophysics of starbursts, super-star clusters, active galactic nuclei, and the birth of planetary systems.
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