Newly photographed crowded star clusters give birth to groups of three, four or five stars, astronomers say, confirming the conventional wisdom that the universe is multi-star forming. I reported it last week.
Observations by the Atacama Large Millisubmillimeter Array (alma telescope) Collection of 30 large star-forming regions in Chile from 2016 to 2019 shows that a single protocluster, named G333.23-0.06, gave birth to a group of multiple star clusters. There is. Performer: 4 binaries, 1 triplet, 1 quadruple, and 1 quintuple system. The survey results are report The results, published January 15 in the journal Nature Astronomy, are consistent with what star formation models have long predicted, astronomers say.
“Finally, we have a detailed look at a rich number of star systems in a massive star-forming region!” Study co-author Henrik Beuter of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) said the following: statement.
“What is particularly interesting is that this observation goes so far as to provide evidence for a specific scenario of massive star formation,” Boiser said.
Related: Introducing ALMA: Stunning photos from the giant radio telescope array
Models have long suggested that Birth of multiple stars As is usually the case, observational evidence has been difficult to obtain because stellar nurseries are dusty and difficult to image. The MPIA statement said that prior to ALMA’s new results, observations had shown the presence of isolated systems within the cluster, but that it was “like the crowd of large systems predicted in the simulations. There was nothing.”
How to image the newly discovered star cluster (width 0.62 × 0.78) light years Because of its size, ALMA effectively used its 66 radio antennas as one giant radio telescope, allowing astronomers to peer through dusty, mostly opaque objects. cloud.
Although the early results on G333.23-0.06 don’t tell us much about the behavior of the star’s inhabitants, the orbit and evolution of a star stuck in such a crowded environment is influenced by gravitational influences from neighboring objects. is known to receive. Multistar systems are known to support planets, even potentially life-friendly planets. habitable zone.
The ALMA images also reveal that there is no disk of dust or gas around the young star G333.23-0.06, and that a different layer of gas, known to astronomers as “core fragmentation,” This suggests that stars are formed through a process. New study. Simulations of star formation show that large gas clouds first collapse into dense cores, within which small regions collapse into groups of stars. Simulations show that a small number of stars can be many times more massive than stars. our sunformed in similar clusters.
“Our observations seem to indicate that multiples form very early on when clouds collapse,” said lead author Shanghuo Li, also from MPIA. “But is that really the case?”
Future analysis of about 50 other star clusters, “some of which are younger than G333.23-0.06, should provide answers.”