Binary Star Systems May Form Planets with Weird and Wild Orbits

08/03/2014 04:04PM

Binary Star Systems May Form Planets with Weird and Wild Orbits

Unlike our Sun, most stars form in binary pairs -- two stars that orbit a common center of mass. Though remarkably plentiful, binaries pose a number of questions, including how and where planets form in such complex environments. While surveying a series of binary stars with the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers uncovered a striking pair of wildly misaligned planet forming disks in the young binary star system HK Tau. These results provide the clearest picture ever of protoplanetary disks around a double star and could reveal important details about the birth and eventual orbit of planets in a multiple star system.


Comments:

  • drgenovese [Charles R Genovese, Jr MD]
  • 08/07/2014 12:54AM
check out K-Pax