Astronomers Multi-unit spectroscopic probe The (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile has imaged Propride, an externally illuminated protoplanetary disk around a young star, at 177-341 W. Orion Nebula.
This VLT/MUSE image shows propylid 177-341 W. Image courtesy of ESO / Aru others., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202349004.
Young stars are surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that gives rise to planets.
If another very bright and massive star is nearby, its light can heat up the young star’s disk and strip it of some of its material.
“Protoplanetary disks made of gas and dust emerge as a result of star formation processes and are the birth sites for planetary systems,” explained ESO astronomer Marie-Rees-Al and her colleagues.
“The evolutionary path of a protoplanetary disk and its ability to form planets depend on the surrounding environment, and we expect disks to undergo rapid changes in the presence of massive stars.”
“In massive clusters close to OB stars, ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause the disk to photoevaporate externally, significantly reducing its size, mass, and lifetime.”
Astronomers used the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope to observe 177-341W and 11 other dwarf stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster, about 400 parsecs away from the Sun.
“The stars encroaching on 177-341 W’s disk drop out of the frame after passing the upper right corner,” the researchers said.
“When that radiation collides with the material around the young star, it creates the bright bow-like structures we see in yellow.”
“The tail extending from the star toward the lower left corner is material being dragged away from 177-341 W by a star outside the field of view.”
“The colours displayed in this image represent different elements, including hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen,” the researchers added.
“But this is only a small part of the total data collected by MUSE. MUSE actually takes thousands of images simultaneously in different colors and wavelengths.”
a paper The findings have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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M.-L. Al others2024. A kaleidoscope of irradiated disks: Propride MUSE observations of the Orion Nebula Cluster. I. Sample presentation and size of the ionization front. A&Ain press; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202349004
Source: www.sci.news
