Twin Proto Planetary Disks
Explanation:
Sun-like stars are forming - and probably
planets too -
hidden inside Lynds 1551, an interstellar
cloud of molecular gas and dust in
the constellation Taurus.
Using new receivers, coordinated radio telescopes at
the Very Large Array
near Socorro, New Mexico, USA,
can now sharply image the dusty proto-planetary disks surrounding
these young stars at radio wavelengths.
Just announced, this exciting example shows a false-color
radio
picture of twin disks in a
double star system!
A yellow bar indicates the scale in astronomical units (AUs)
where one AU is the average distance between the Earth and Sun.
The stars (unseen near the center of each disk) are about 45 AUs apart,
comparable to the radius of the orbit
of Pluto.
Similar
proto-planetary disks
have been seen around single stars,
but these twin disks are much smaller, each limited in size by the
gravity of the nearby companion star.
In fact, if large planets form orbiting near the edges of these
disks they may be
ejected from the binary system.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
