Astronomers discover two stars that joined together to form a binary system just 60 years ago
Using ALMA, astronomers have watched as two stars come together to form a massive stellar binary, finding chaos that indicates they emerged from different backgrounds.
Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery using the ALMA radio telescope: two stars that formed separately and later collided to create a massive stellar binary system, just 60 years ago. This finding challenges the common belief that most binary stars form from the same collapsing cloud of gas and dust. The research team, led by Yichen Zhang of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, observed the protostars in the IRAS 07299−1651 system, located 5,300 light-years away.
At first, the misalignment of the disks surrounding the protostars raised suspicions, but it wasn't until the team mapped the stars' movements over eight years that the true nature of the binary system became clear. The orbits of the stars are highly eccentric, and the disks are misaligned, suggesting that the two stars were born in separate clouds before coming together.
This rare encounter, which occurred 60 years ago, has resulted in a complex 3-dimensional structure that is challenging to explain if the stars had formed together. The team's findings, published in Nature Astronomy, could help scientists understand the prevalence of such chance encounters and the likelihood of binary systems being formed by these events.
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