New data reveals that three spiral arms of gas play a significant role in supplying material to three protostars forming in a trinary system, offering insight into the formation of multi-star systems.
Stars similar to the sun often form in multi-star systems alongside other stars. Comprehending multi-star system formation is crucial for understanding star formation.
Due to the complexity and inadequate high-quality data, astronomers were uncertain about how these systems form.
“Streamers” or gas flows towards protostars have been observed, but their formation mechanism remained ambiguous.
Led by Jeong-Eun Lee from Seoul National University, the research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe the trinary protostar system IRAS 04239+2436.
Situated 460 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, the system revealed emissions from sulfur monoxide molecules. These emissions outline three spiral arms circling the trio of forming protostars.
The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Simulations were undertaken by Tomoaki Matsumoto at Hosei University, leveraging the supercomputers ATERUI and ATERUI II at Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory.
The simulations confirmed that these spiral arms act as streamers, directing material to the developing protostars.
By merging both observations and simulations, researchers have unveiled the formation mechanism of the streamers.
This marks the first time that the process by which these streamers contribute to the growth of central protostars has been elucidated.
The discovery brings clarity to an area previously shrouded in mystery.
It not only enhances our understanding of how stars like our sun come into existence within multi-star systems but also underscores the importance of using both observation and simulation in tandem to unlock the secrets of the universe.
The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal.
