SO Colloquium: Back to Orion

Orion is the massive star formation region closest to the Sun and in consequence it has been studied in detail. I will present three recent results from the IRyA group on this region. The first one is the ultraprecise determination of the distance to Orion using VLBI observations of stars with non-thermal emission. The second result is a study of the kinematics of the stars with either termal or non-thermal emission. Finally, we will focus on the extraordinary “explosión” that seems to have taken place in the Orion BN/KL region. Not only the molecular gas but also several stars are receding from a point in common with velocities of hundreds of km/s for the gas and of tens of km/s for the stars. We will present the most recent data on the proper motion of the stars and discuss the models that have been proposed to explain this phenomenon.