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AE Aurigae (abbreviated as AE Aur) is a runaway star in the constellation Auriga; it lights the Flaming Star Nebula.
It is a runaway star that might have been ejected during a collision of two binary star groups. This collision, which also is credited with ejecting Mu Columbae and possibly 53 Arietis, has been traced to the Trapezium cluster in the Orion Nebula two million years ago. The binary Iota Orionis may have been the other half of this collision.
AE Aur is seen to light up the Flaming Star nebula, but it was not formed within it. Instead it is passing through the nebula at high speed and producing a violent bow shock and high energy electromagnetic radiation.
Companions
Two candidate companion stars have been detected at of 8.4 and 0.35, respectively, but these are thought to be unrelated, optical companions. A new potential companion was discovered using the CHARA array in 2023. In December 2017, it had an angular separation from AE Aurigae of 6.85 mas, and in September 2018 it had an angular separation of 1.74 mas.
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