Astronomers found the process behind the formation of multiple-star system, reports claim.
Researchers from the University of Oklahoma explained that astronomers could observe dusty disk material on a young star that transforming into a multiple-star system. They said that they observed the process using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).
Joh Tobin, one of the researchers, explained that their study showed that there are two ways to create multiple star systems. They can be produced through fragmentation of circumstellar disks and fragmentation of large gas clouds and dusts,
Giant gas and dust clouds can form stars. They explained that when this cloud material collapses into denser cores they get additional material inwards that forms rotating disks around the star, Science Daily reported.
They explained that multiple star systems have close companion stars that 500 times father than the distance of our planet to the sun. They can even be farther as 1000 times the distance of Earth to Sun.
The astronomers found out that the different formation mechanism is the reason why the distances among multiple star systems and companion stars differ. They said that large cloud fragments form wide-separated systems.
They believe that the fragmentation of smaller disk on stars create closer systems. They said that their findings showed the companion stars' relative proximity, Phys. Org reported.
For this study, researchers explained that they studied young triple-star systems called L1448 IRS3 located in Perseus that's 750 light-years from Earth. Kaitlin Kratter, another researcher, explained that the star system is less than 150,000 years old.
She explained that their findings showed that the disk is unstable. The disk was even separated by three stars that were formed around 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
By studying the L1448 IRS3B system, the researchers had direct observational evidence that disk fragmentation can produce multiple-star systems. The researchers are now searching for new star systems to study to know more about multiple-star system formations.
