Once upon a time there was a rising star called HD 100546 (1,000 times younger than the Sun) that was about 300 light years away. Thus begins this astronomical tale in which, for the first time in history, a team of astronomers from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) has been able to observe the “embryo” of a budding star , surrounded by a large continuous disk of material. The finding has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
Planets are forming around this rising star and “ no one until now has been able to observe so closely a star that is still forming and that also has a planet so close . For the first time, we have been able to detect emissions from the inner region of the gas disk that surrounds the central star. And, surprisingly, this emission is very similar to that of sterile young stars that do not show any sign of forming planets ”, explains Ignacio Mendigutía, leader of the study.
The scientists used Chile’s VLTI (Very Large Telescope Interferometer ) to obtain a clear image with high detail as if it were a 130-meter diameter telescope, thanks to the possibility of combining 4 high-power telescopes. “Considering the great distance that separates us from the star (about 325 light years), the challenge is equivalent to trying to observe something the size of the head of a pin at 100 km. away ”, clarifies Rene Oudmaijer, co-author of the study.
Data from the ESO observatory revealed that this rising star is surrounded by a disk-shaped structure of dust and gas, a protoplanetary disk, from which the planets orbiting the star will form . This protoplanetary disk is not only not continuous but “shows a hole that is completely empty of material. This gap is very large, about ten times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The inner zone of a disk of dust and gas only survives a few years before being trapped by the central star ”, Mendigutia comments.
Thus, according to astronomers, this could only mean that to continue to exist, this material from the inner disk would have to be replaced in some way . How? The experts propose a theory: “The gravitational influence of a planet in full formation (or of several), located in the empty zone could be driving a transfer of material from the outer part of the disk, rich in gas and dust, towards the regions interiors ”, suggests Mendigutia.
What is clear is that this system is extremely rare to see and will allow us to understand a little better the formation of the stars in our universe .
