The image shows a young star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. An international team of astronomers has just discovered a tight ring of carbon monoxide in the planet-forming disk around V1052 Cen, a star about 700 light years away in the southern constellation Centaurus. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Astronomers have detected a
mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas around the young star V1052 Cen, which
is about 700 light years away in the southern constellation Centaurus.
The ring is part of the
star’s planet-forming disk, and it’s as far from V1052 Cen as Earth is from the
sun. Discovered with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope,
its edges are uniquely crisp.
Carbon monoxide is often
detected near young stars, but the gas is usually spread through the
planet-forming disk. What’s different about this ring is that it is shaped more
like a rope than a dinner plate, said Charles Cowley, professor emeritus at the
University of Michigan who led the international
research effort.
“It’s exciting because
this is the most constrained ring we’ve ever seen, and it requires an
explanation,” Cowley said. “At present time, we just don’t understand
what makes it a rope rather than a dish.”
Perhaps magnetic fields
hold it in place, the researchers say. Maybe “shepherding planets”
are reining it in like several of Saturn’s moons control certain planetary
rings.
“What makes this star
so special is its very strong magnetic field and the fact that it rotates
extremely slow compared to other stars of the same type,” said Swetlana
Hubrig, of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Germany.
The star’s unique
properties first caught the researchers’ attention in 2008, and they have been
studying it intensely ever since.
Understanding the
interaction between central stars, their magnetic fields and planet-forming
disks is crucial for astronomers to reconstruct the solar system’s history. It
is also important to account for the diversity of the known planetary systems
beyond our own.
This new finding raises
more questions than it answers about the late stages of star and solar system
formation.
“Why do turbulent
motions not tear the ring apart?” Cowley said. “How permanent is the
structure? What forces might act to preserve it for times comparable to the
stellar formation time itself?”
The team is excited to have
found an ideal test case to study this type of object.
“This star is a gift
of nature,” Hubrig said.
The findings are published
online in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
