The start of the birth of planets in a binary star system observed

Astronomers have observed primordial material that may be giving birth to three planetary systems.

An international group of scientists have observed a pair of stars and discovered that they are surrounded by disks of gas and dust. According to research published today in The Astrophysical Journal, the material within the newly discovered disks could be the beginnings of new planet systems in the future.

The scientific group studied the star in its infancy using the Very Large array and the ALMA. This work has provided the best description so far.

The models suggest that planets are formed by the aggregation of ice and dust in disks around stars. The models usually consider only single stars. Most stars form a system in which the two stars rotation around a common center. It's not known how planets are born around important twin star systems, in which the interaction between the two stars plays an essential role.

Our results show that each star has a disk of gas and dust around it and that a larger disk is forming around both stars, according to a researcher.

The outer disk shows a spiral structure that is feeding matter into individual disks, and in all of them planetary systems could form in the future. It is clear that there are disks around both stars and that there is a common disk in the system.

About 980 light-years away in the Perseus cloud, there is a system consisting of two stellar embryos with a mass similar to the sun. The two stars in the system are very close to each other, with a distance of only ninety times that between the Earth and the sun.

The work made it possible to study the composition of gas, dust and ionized matter. The building blocks of life will be discovered when planets begin to form around these two suns.

The scientific team has used the observations of the VLA over thirty years and the new data from ALMA to trace the motion of the two stars over this period, as well as the geometry and orientation of the system. The work shows how careful, systematic studies of young stars can give a remarkably detailed view of their structure and properties.

Twenty-five years ago, we began studying this system. We were surprised to learn that only one star is visible in the optical. When stellar embryos are detected in radio, they are only visible at the end of the process. It was odd to find a pair of twin stars where one of them seemed to have evolved faster than the other. We designed several experiments to find out if either of the stars could form planets. Guillem Anglada, a researcher at the IAA-CSIC who is coordinating, says that both stars are very young and can form planets.

Some studies consider it to be very young and others consider it to be in a later stage, which has generated a lot of debate in the scientific literature. The study sheds light on the nature of the two stars and their environment, as well as providing crucial parameters for testing numerical simulations of the early stages of the formation of a multiple system.

More information: John J. Tobin et al, The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk And Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. V. A Characterization of Protostellar Multiplicity, The Astrophysical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac36d2 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Citation: The start of the birth of planets in a binary star system observed (2022, March 10) retrieved 10 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-birth-planets-binary-star.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.