NOVA: Mysterious Nitrogen Area in a Star Formation Disk

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NOVA: Mysterious Nitrogen Area in a Star Formation Disk

Post by bystander » Fri Jun 16, 2017 4:48 pm

Mysterious Nitrogen Area in a Butterfly-Shaped Star Formation Disk
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) | 2017 Jun 15
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An international team of astronomers, led by Dutch scientists, has discovered a region in our Milky Way that contains many nitrogen compounds in the southeast of a butterfly-shaped star formation disk and very little in the north-west. The astronomers suspect that multiple stars-to-be share the same star formation disk, but the precise process is still a puzzle. ...

An international team of astronomers studied the star forming region G35.20-0.74N, more than 7000 light years from Earth in the southern sky. The astronomers used the (sub)millimeter telescope ALMA ...

The researchers saw something special in the disk around a young, heavy star. While large amounts of oxygen-containing and sulfur-containing hydrocarbons were present throughout the disk, the astronomers found only nitrogen-containing molecules in the southeastern part of the disk. In addition, it was 150 degrees warmer on the nitrogen side than on the other side of the disk.

Based on these observations, the scientists suspect that there are multiple stars forming at the same time in one disk and that some stars are hotter or heavier than others. The researchers expect the disk to eventually break into several smaller disks as the stars grow. ...

Chemical Segregation in Hot Cores With Disk Candidates: An Investigation with ALMA - V. Allen et al
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This artistic impression shows the universe around the star formation area <br />with, as an overlay, the scientists' observations. (c) V. Allen/A. Elconin
This artistic impression shows the universe around the star formation area
with, as an overlay, the scientists' observations. (c) V. Allen/A. Elconin
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