Observations Show that O Class Stars in Orion Prevent Planet Formation of Nearby Protostars

Researchers from Canada and the US have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array to observe star formation in the Orion Nebula.  What they have found is that any young star that is within 0.1 light years of a O class star will have their surrounding dust be blown away by the photons emitted by the O class star.  This greatly hinders the formation of planets around these young stars, which means that there will be very few solar systems near O class stars.

 These stars from the Nebula form like the simulation showed in class when a large dust cloud reaches the Jeans mass.  The simulation showed that the largest stars formed first during the cloud collapse, so it makes sense that they would start disrupting the small stars before they had a chance to fully form their systems.  One of the Canadian scientists said that “Their energetic photons can quickly deplete a nearby protoplanetary disk by heating up its gas, breaking it up, and sweeping it away.”  I'm guessing this means that the photons from the O class star either impart some kinetic energy onto the gas and allow it to exceed the gravitational potential and escape, or it ionizes it and then emits neutrinos or something fancy.  Probably the former, but I wouldn't really know.

Overall I don't think these observations are really too groundbreaking, but merely a confirmation of something that makes a lot of sense theoretically. (Which is why they used "Death Star" in the title.)

Source

A picture of  two young stars and a O class star.  Apparently one of them is getting its dust blown away but I don't see it.