Extended High Circular Polarization in the Orion Massive Star Forming
  Region: Implications for the Origin of Homochirality in the Solar System
  We present a wide-field (~6'x6') and deep near-infrared (Ks band: 2.14 micro
m) circular polarization image in the Orion nebula, where massive stars and
many low-mass stars are forming. Our results reveal that a high circular
polarization region is spatially extended (~0.4 pc) around the massive
star-forming region, the BN/KL nebula. However, other regions, including the
linearly polarized Orion bar, show no significant circular polarization. Most
of the low-mass young stars do not show detectable extended structure in either
linear or circular polarization, in contrast to the BN/KL nebula. If our solar
system formed in a massive star-forming region and was irradiated by net
circularly polarized radiation, then enantiomeric excesses could have been
induced, through asymmetric photochemistry, in the parent bodies of the
meteorites and subsequently delivered to Earth. These could then have played a
role in the development of biological homochirality on Earth.
