BHB2007 - Un bebe etoile binaire en formation
How do binary stars form?
To help find out, the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
(ALMA) recently captured one of the highest resolution images yet taken of a binary star system in formation.
Most stars are not alone -- they typically form as part of a multiple star systems where star each orbits a common center of gravity.
The two bright spots in the
featured image are small disks that surround the forming proto-stars in [BHB2007] 11, while the surrounding pretzel-shaped filaments are gas and dust that have been
gravitationally pulled
from a larger disk.
The circumstellar filaments span roughly the radius of the orbit of
Neptune.
The
BHB2007 system
is a small part of the
Pipe Nebula (also known as
Barnard 59), a
photogenic network of
dust and gas that protrudes from
Milky Way's spiral disk in the
constellation of Ophiuchus.
The binary star formation process should be complete within a few million years.