  The HH 24 complex harbors five collimated jets emanating from a small
protostellar multiple system. We have carried out a multi-wavelength study of
the jets, their driving sources, and the cloud core hosting the embedded
stellar system, based on data from the HST, Gemini, Subaru, APO 3.5m, VLA, and
ALMA telescopes. The data show that the multiple system, SSV 63, contains at
least 7 sources, ranging in mass from the hydrogen-burning limit to
proto-Herbig Ae stars. The stars are in an unstable non-hierarchical
configuration, and one member, a borderline brown dwarf, is moving away from
the protostellar system with 25 km/s, after being ejected about 5,800 yr ago as
an orphaned protostar. Five of the embedded sources are surrounded by small,
possibly truncated, disks resolved at 1.3 mm with ALMA. Proper motions and
radial velocities imply jet speeds of 200-300 km/s. The two main HH 24 jets, E
and C, form a bipolar jet system which traces the innermost portions of
parsec-scale chains of Herbig-Haro and H2 shocks with a total extent of at
least 3 parsec. H2CO and C18O observations show that the core has been churned
and continuously fed by an infalling streamer. 13CO and 12CO trace compact,
low-velocity, cavity walls carved by the jets and an ultra-compact molecular
outflow from the most embedded object. Chaotic N-body dynamics likely will
eject several more of these objects. The ejection of stars from their feeding
zones sets their masses. Dynamical decay of non-hierarchical systems can thus
be a major contributor to establishing the initial mass function.
