Thanks to the ALMA radio telescope array, astronomers for the first time managed to display in detail the disk of gas and dust surrounding the growing massive protostar G353.273+0.641, as well as get an idea of the processes going on in it.
The first detailed picture of the disk feeding the developing young massive star allowed us to find out that the processes of formation of large and small luminaries have much in common. In fact, they are the same, and their course does not depend on the final mass of the star. Our findings open a window to a more complete understanding of star formation throughout the universe.
A protostar is a young star in the process of formation, whose growth is due to the gas falling on it from the surrounding disk. Details of this process and questions related to it, such as why are stars formed with a wide range of masses, have not yet been disclosed and have not found an answer. The problem is that today, in the immediate vicinity of the Solar System, small luminaries are mainly born, whose cradles have already been studied in some detail, but massive protostars at an accessible distance for study are a rarity. Plus, the disks of large stars have always been observed to date edge.
Now we have managed to find the ideal target for the study – the massive growing protostar G353. It is located at a distance of 5.5 thousand light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Scorpius and has a mass 10 times greater than the sun. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that we see her surroundings flat.
The high resolution of ALMA allowed us to consider a disk rotating around G353, the radius of which was eight times larger than the distance from the Sun to Neptune. It sounds great, but it is one of the smallest discs ever found around massive protostars. In addition, the observations revealed a gas envelope extending three times beyond the boundaries of the disk.
We measured the rate of gas inflow from the outer shell to the inner disk, which helped us estimate the age of G353. Surprisingly, she is only 3,000 years old, that is, the G353 is the youngest among all known massive protostars. We witnessed the earliest growth phase of a giant star!
-Kazuhito Motogi, lead author of the study from Yamaguchi University (Japan)
Interestingly, the disk surrounding the G353 is heterogeneous: its southeast side is brighter than other parts. This is the first time that astronomers have discovered an asymmetric disk around a massive protostar. In addition, the team Kazuhito Motogi managed to find out that he is very unstable and will soon be fragmented. Such features are often observed around smaller protostars, and this indicates the similarity of the main physical processes during the formation of luminaries of various masses.
Previous studies have suggested that the formation process is not the same for small and large stars. Our observations show similarities. This is an important step towards understanding how massive protostars collect matter from their surroundings.
-Kazuhito Motogi
Disk of gas and dust surrounding the growing massive protostar
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