NRAO: Fragmenting Disk Gives Birth to Binary Star 'Odd Couple'

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bystander
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NRAO: Fragmenting Disk Gives Birth to Binary Star 'Odd Couple'

Post by bystander » Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:12 pm

Fragmenting Disk Gives Birth to Binary Star 'Odd Couple'
National Radio Astronomy Observatory | 2018 Dec 14

One Star Potentially Formed in Planet-like Fashion

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that two young stars forming from the same swirling protoplanetary disk may be twins — in the sense that they came from the same parent cloud of star-forming material. Beyond that, however, they have shockingly little in common.

The main, central star of this system, which is located approximately 11,000 light-years from Earth, is truly colossal — a full 40 times more massive than the Sun. The other star, which ALMA recently discovered just beyond the central star’s disk, is a relatively puny one-eightieth (1/80) that mass.

Their striking difference in size suggests that they formed by following two very different paths. The more massive star took the more traditional route by collapsing under gravity out of a dense “core” of gas. The smaller one likely followed the road less traveled by – at least for stars – by accumulating mass from a portion of the disk that “fragmented” away as it matured, a process that may have more in common with the birth of gas-giant planets. ...

A Young Star Caught Forming Like a Planet
University of Leeds, UK | 2018 Dec 14

G11.92-0.61 MM 1: A fragmented Keplerian disk surrounding a proto-O star ~ J. D. Ilee et al
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Re: NRAO: Fragmenting Disk Gives Birth to Binary Star 'Odd Couple'

Post by neufer » Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:35 pm

bystander wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:12 pm Fragmenting Disk Gives Birth to Binary Star 'Odd Couple'
National Radio Astronomy Observatory | 2018 Dec 14
One Star Potentially Formed in Planet-like Fashion

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that two young stars forming from the same swirling protoplanetary disk may be twins — in the sense that they came from the same parent cloud of star-forming material. Beyond that, however, they have shockingly little in common.

The main, central star of this system, which is located approximately 11,000 light-years from Earth, is truly colossal — a full 40 times more massive than the Sun. The other star, which ALMA recently discovered just beyond the central star’s disk, is a relatively puny one-eightieth (1/80) that mass.

Their striking difference in size suggests that they formed by following two very different paths. The more massive star took the more traditional route by collapsing under gravity out of a dense “core” of gas. The smaller one likely followed the road less traveled by – at least for stars – by accumulating mass from a portion of the disk that “fragmented” away as it matured, a process that may have more in common with the birth of gas-giant planets. ...

A Young Star Caught Forming Like a Planet
University of Leeds, UK | 2018 Dec 14

G11.92-0.61 MM 1: A fragmented Keplerian disk surrounding a proto-O star ~ J. D. Ilee et al
Art Neuendorffer

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