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


Date:
March 10, 2022
Source:
University of Manchester
Summary:
Astronomers have observed primordial material that may be
giving birth to three planetary systems around a binary star in
unprecedented detail.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Astronomers have observed primordial material that may be giving birth
to three planetary systems around a binary star in unprecedented detail.


========================================================================== Bringing together three decades of study, an international group of
scientists have observed a pair of stars orbiting each other, to reveal
that these stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust. The material
within the newly discovered disks could be the beginnings of new planet
systems which in the future orbit the binary stars.

Using the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large
Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the scientific group has studied
the binary star SVS 13, still in its embryonic phase. This work has
provided the best description available so far on a binary system in
formation.

Models of planet formation suggest that planets form by the slow
aggregation of ice and dust particles in protoplanetary disks around
forming stars. Usually these models consider only single stars, such
as the Sun. However, most stars form binary systems, in which two
stars rotate around a common centre. Very little is yet known about how
planets are born around these important twin star systems, in which the gravitational interaction between the two stars plays an essential role.

"Our results have revealed that each star has a disk of gas and dust
around it and that, in addition, a larger disk is forming around both
stars," says Ana Karla Di'az-Rodri'guez, a researcher at the IAA-CSIC
and the UK ALMA Regional Centre (UK-ARC) at The University of Manchester,
who leads the work.

"This outer disk shows a spiral structure that is feeding matter into
the individual disks, and in all of them planetary systems could form
in the future. This is clear evidence for the presence of disks around
both stars and the existence of a common disk in a binary system."
The binary system SVS 13, consisting of two stellar embryos with a total
mass similar to that of the Sun, is relatively close to us, about 980 light-years away in the Perseus molecular cloud allowing its detailed
study. The two stars in the system are very close to each other, with
a distance of only about ninety times that between the Earth and the Sun.

The work has made it possible to study the composition of gas, dust
and ionized matter in the system. In addition, nearly thirty different molecules have been identified around both protostars, including thirteen complex organic molecules precursors of life (seven of them detected
for the first time in this system).

"This means that when planets begin to form around these two suns, the
building blocks of life will be there," says Ana Karla Di'az-Rodri'guez (IAA-CSIC / UK- ARC).

The scientific team has used the observations of SVS 13 obtained by
the VLA over thirty years, together with new data from ALMA, and has
followed the motion of both stars over this period, which has allowed
their orbit to be traced, as well as the geometry and orientation of
the system, along with many fundamental parameters, such as the mass
of the protostars, the mass of the disks, and their temperature. Gary
Fuller of the University of Manchester, a collaborator on the project,
says "This work shows how careful, systematic studies of young stars can provide a remarkably detailed view of their structure and properties."
"At the IAA we began studying this system twenty-five years ago. We were surprised when we discovered that SVS 13 was a radio binary, because only
one star is seen in the optical. Normally, stellar embryos are detected
in radio, but they only become visible at the end of the gestation
process. It was very strange to discover a pair of twin stars where one
of them seemed to have evolved much faster than the other. We designed
several experiments to get more details and to find out if in such a case either of the stars could form planets. Now we have seen that both stars
are very young, and that both can form planets," says Guillem Anglada,
a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofi'sica de Andaluci'a (IAA-CSIC)
who is coordinating the studies of SVS 13.

SVS 13 has generated much debate in the scientific literature, as some
studies consider it to be extremely young and others consider it to be
in a later stage. This new study, probably the most complete study of
a binary star system in formation, not only sheds light on the nature
of the two protostars and their environment, but also provides crucial parameters for testing numerical simulations of the early stages of
binary and multiple system formation.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Manchester. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. John J. Tobin, Stella S. R. Offner, Kaitlin M. Kratter, S. Thomas
Megeath, Patrick D. Sheehan, Leslie W. Looney, Ana Karla
Diaz-Rodriguez, Mayra Osorio, Guillem Anglada, Sarah I. Sadavoy,
Elise Furlan, Dominique Segura-Cox, Nicole Karnath, Merel L. R. van
't Hoff, Ewine F. van Dishoeck, Zhi-Yun Li, Rajeeb Sharma,
Amelia M. Stutz, Łukasz Tychoniec. The VLA/ALMA Nascent
Disk And Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. V. A
Characterization of Protostellar Multiplicity. The Astrophysical
Journal, 2022; 925 (1): 39 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac36d2 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220310115127.htm

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