Near-infrared, adaptive optics observations of the T Tauri multiple-star system

With high angular resolution, near-infrared observations of the young stellar object T Tauri at the end of 2002, we show that, contrary to previous reports, none of the three infrared components of T Tau seem to coincide with the compact radio source that has apparently been ejected recently from the system (Loinard, Rodriguez, & Rodriguez). The compact radio source and the infrared object it has previously been identified with, T Tau Sb, have distinct paths that departed from orbital or uniform motion between 1997 and 2000, perhaps indicating that their interaction led to the ejection of the radio source. The path that T Tau Sb took between 1997 and 2003 may indicate that this star is still bound to the presumably more massive southern component, T Tau Sa. The radio source ( if indeed distinct from T Tau Sb) is absent from our near-infrared images and must therefore be fainter than (K = 10.2 (if located within 100 mas of T Tau Sb, as the radio data would imply), still consistent with an identity as a low-mass star or substellar object.