Astronomers Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) Mid-infrared measuring instrument (mm) NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope A twin disk and parallel jets were discovered in the young star system WL20.
Barsoni othersTwin disks and jets erupting from a pair of young stars in WL20. Image credit: NSF / NRAO / B. Saxton / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Harvard-Smithsonian CfA.
WL20 It is located in the Rho Ophiuchus Molecular Cloud Complex, more than 400 light years from Earth.
“What we found was absolutely surprising,” said Dr Mary Barthony, lead author of the study.
“We've known about the WL20 system for some time, but what caught our attention was that one of the stars in the system appeared to be much younger than the others.”
“Using MIRI and ALMA together, we were able to see that this one star is actually two stars next to each other.”
“Each of these stars was surrounded by a disk, and each disk emitted a jet parallel to the others.”
ALMA and Webb's MIRI observe very different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Used together, they allowed astronomers to discover these hidden twins in the stellar system's radio and infrared wavelengths: ALMA found the disk, and MIRI found the jet.
They analyzed archived ALMA data to reveal the composition of the disk, and MIRI data to reveal the chemical composition of the jet.
They also analyzed high-resolution images, revealing the size of the massive disk – about 100 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
“Without MIRI we would never have known these jets even existed, which is amazing,” Dr Barthony said.
“ALMA's high-resolution observations of the disks surrounding the two newly observed stars reveal the structure of the disks.”
“Someone looking at this ALMA data and not knowing there are twin jets would think it's a big edge-on disk with a hole in the middle, rather than two edge-on disks and two jets. That's pretty remarkable.”
Combining multi-wavelength data from ALMA and Webb revealed the complex processes involved in the formation of several stellar systems.
“We plan to take advantage of ALMA's future upgrades, such as the broadband sensitivity upgrade, to continue unlocking the mysteries surrounding the birth of stars and planetary systems,” the researchers said.
They are, result in 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society In Madison, Wisconsin.
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Mary Barthony others2024. Twin jets and twin discs: JWST MIRI and ALMA discoveries in the young WL20 multiple star system. 224 AustraliaAbstract #253
Source: www.sci.news
