Left, mid-infrared image of the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the focus points to the WL20 star system. At right, WL20 expands to reveal an artist’s rendering of this new discovery. Astronomers couldn’t believe their luck when observations at multiple radio and infrared wavelengths from ALMA and JWST revealed twin discs and jets emanating from a pair of young binaries in WL20. Credit: US NSF/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton.; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
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Left, mid-infrared image of the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the focus points to the WL20 star system. At right, WL20 expands to reveal an artist’s rendering of this new discovery. Astronomers couldn’t believe their luck when observations at multiple radio and infrared wavelengths from ALMA and JWST revealed twin discs and jets emanating from a pair of young binaries in WL20. Credit: US NSF/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton.; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Most of the universe is invisible to the human eye. The building blocks of stars are only revealed at wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. Astronomers recently used two very different and very powerful telescopes to discover twin disks — and two parallel jets — emanating from young stars in a multi-star system.
This discovery was unexpected and unprecedented given the age, size and chemical composition of the stars, disks and jets. Their placement in a familiar, well-explored part of the universe adds to the excitement.
Observations from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) were combined for this research.
ALMA and MIRI from JWST observe very different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using them together allowed astronomers to discover these twins hidden in radio and infrared wavelengths in the WL20 star system, located in the nearby rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex, more than 400 light-years away from Earth’s solar system.
“What we discovered was absolutely wild,” says astronomer Mary Barsony, “We’ve known about the WL20 star system for a long time. But what caught our attention was that one of the stars in the system looked much younger than the others. MIRI and ALMA together, we actually saw that this ONE star was TWO stars right next to each other. Each of these stars was surrounded by a disk, and each disk emitted jets parallel to the other.”
These brightly colored shapes represent astronomical data collected by NASA’s ALMA NRAO and JWST telescopes. Left composite image overlays ALMA and JWST data revealing discs and parallel jets emanating from a pair of binaries in WL20. Shown on the right is the distribution of separate ALMA data and JWST data representing different chemical compositions. Acknowledgments: US NSF/ NSF NRAO/ ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ JWST/ B. Saxton.
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These brightly colored shapes represent astronomical data collected by NASA’s ALMA NRAO and JWST telescopes. Left composite image overlays ALMA and JWST data revealing discs and parallel jets emanating from a pair of binaries in WL20. Shown on the right is the distribution of separate ALMA data and JWST data representing different chemical compositions. Acknowledgments: US NSF/ NSF NRAO/ ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ JWST/ B. Saxton.
ALMA spotted the discs while MIRI found the jets. Co-author Valentin JM Le Gouellec of NASA-ARC acquired and reduced ALMA archival data to reveal the composition of the disks, while Lukasz Tychoniec of the Leiden Observatory provided high-resolution images that revealed disks of massive size, about 100 times the distance between Earth. and the sun. Another co-author, Martijn L. van Gelder, provided resources for processing data collected by MIRI that revealed the chemical composition of the jets.
Barsony adds, “So if it wasn’t for MIRI, we wouldn’t even know these jets existed, which is amazing.”
ALMA’s high-resolution observations of the disks surrounding the two newly observed stars revealed the structure of the disks, as Barsony explains: “Someone looking at this ALMA data without knowing that there are twin jets would think it’s a large disk rim with a center. hole, instead of two edges on the discs and two jets. That’s quite remarkable.”
Another remarkable thing about this discovery is that he may never have had the opportunity to make it. JPL scientist Michael Ressler explains: “Much of the research on binary protostars focuses on a few nearby star-forming regions. I got some time of my own to observe with JWST and decided to break it up into a few small projects.
“For one project, I decided to study binaries in the Perseus star-forming region. However, I had been studying WL20, which is in the rho Ophiuchus region in almost the opposite part of the sky, for almost 30 years and I thought, ‘Why not sneak it, I’ll never get another chance, although it doesn’t quite fit the others.” We had a very happy accident with what we found, and the results are astounding.”
By combining multi-wavelength data from ALMA and JWST, these new findings shed light on the complex processes involved in the formation of multiple star systems. Astronomers plan to use ALMA’s future enhanced capabilities, such as the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, to continue unraveling the mysteries surrounding the birth of stars and planetary systems.