Fragmentation In The Disk: New Studies Give Boost To Binary Star Formation Theory
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 - 16:30
in Astronomy & Space
Using the new capabilities of the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), scientists have discovered previously-unseen binary companions to a pair of very young protostars, which gives strong support for one of the competing explanations for how double-star systems form. Astronomers know that about half of all Sun-like stars are members of double or multiple-star systems, but have debated over how such systems are formed. "The only way to resolve the debate is to observe very young stellar systems and catch them in the act of formation," said John Tobin, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "That's what we've done with the stars we observed, and we got valuable new clues from them," he added. read more