Astronomers witness the birth of a massive binary star system.

Observations of a massive spiralling cloud of gas and dust have given a team of astronomers from across the globe a glimpse at how binary systems form.

Robert Lea
Predict

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Astronomers have made observations of a molecular cloud that is collapsing to form two massive protostars that will eventually become a binary star system.

Even though scientists know that most massive stars possess orbiting stellar companions it has been unclear how this comes about — are the stars born together from a common spiralling gas disk at the centre of a collapsing cloud, or do they pair up later by chance encounters in a crowded star cluster?

The background image shows dense, dusty streams of gas (shown in green) that appear to be flowing towards the centre. Gas motions, as traced by the methanol molecule, that are towards us are shown in blue; motions away from us in red. The inset image shows a zoom-in view of the massive forming binary, with the brighter, primary protostar moving toward us is shown in blue and the fainter, secondary protostar moving away from us shown in red. The blue and red dotted lines show an example of orbits of the primary and secondary spiralling around their centre of mass (marked by the cross) (Riken)

Understanding the dynamics of forming binaries has been difficult because the protostars in these systems are still enveloped in a thick cloud of gas and dust that prevents light they emit from reaching us. Fortunately, it is possible to see them using radio waves, as long as they can be imaged with sufficiently high spatial resolution.

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Robert Lea
Predict
Editor for

Freelance science journalist. BSc Physics. Space. Astronomy. Astrophysics. Quantum Physics. SciComm. ABSW member. WCSJ Fellow 2019. IOP Fellow.