SPACE — Kyushu University researchers shed new light on the critical question of how baby stars develop during their formation. Using the ALMA radio telescope in Chile, the team discovered that during its growth period, the protostellar disk surrounding the baby star emitted plumes of dust, gas and electromagnetic energy.
According to the researchers, the event called ‘sneezing’ released magnetic flux/flow within the protostellar disk. They suspect this event is an important part of the formation of stars. Their findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Context: Stars, including our sun, all develop from what are called stellar nurseries, which are large concentrations of gas and dust that eventually condense to form stellar nuclei or baby stars. During that process, gas and dust form a ring around the baby star called a protostellar disk.
“The structure is constantly penetrated by a magnetic field, which carries with it a magnetic flux. “However, if all that magnetic flux were maintained as the star developed, this would produce a magnetic field much stronger than that observed in any known protostar,” said lead author of the new study, Kazuki Tokuda of Kyushu University’s Faculty of Science.
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Therefore, researchers are looking to find out how the magnetic field decreases over time. They hypothesized that there are certain mechanisms during star development that could eliminate this magnetic flux. The common view is that the magnetic field gradually weakens over time as gas and dust are drawn into the star’s core.
To uncover this mysterious phenomenon, the team turned their gaze to MC 27, a stellar nursery located about 450 light years from Earth. The observations were collected using the ALMA array, a collection of 66 high-precision radio telescopes built 5,000 meters above sea level in northern Chile.
“When we analyzed the data, we discovered something unexpected. There are spike-like structures extending several astronomical units (AU) from the protostellar disk. “As we dug deeper, we found that this was a surge in magnetic flux that was ejecting dust and gas,” Tokuda said.
He explains that it is a phenomenon called ‘exchange instability’ where instability in the magnetic field reacts with varying densities of gas in the protostellar disk. That instability produces an outward magnetic flux.
“We call this a baby star’s ‘sneeze’ because it reminds us of that phenomenon, when we expel dust and air at high speed,” he said.
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Additionally, another spike was observed several thousand astronomical units away from the protostellar disk. The team hypothesized that it was an indication of another ‘sneeze’ in the past.
The team hopes their findings will improve understanding of the complex processes that shape the universe. However, the field continues to attract interest from the astronomical community and society.
Tokuda said similar spike-like structures have been observed in other young stars. That is, it is evidence of the beginning of astronomical discoveries, that all stars experience the same events.
2024-04-12 01:40:30
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