Researchers have identified the formation of three planetary systems around SVS 13, a binary star system. Here’s everything you need to know about the new discovery.
Planetary systems found around binary stars
Encountered 980 light-years away, the SVS 13 and the complex dust structures around it are showing how planetary systems are born in intriguing environments. The international group of researchers brought three decades of studies and data on a pair of stars orbiting each other. It revealed that disks of gas and dust are surrounding these stars. The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Array (LVA) it was understood that the binary star system is in its embryonic phase.
Additionally, the models of the planetary system and its formation suggest that they form due to slowly aggregating ice and dust particles. Most models consider a single star and its formation. But, in binary star systems, two stars rotate around a common center. Currently, we know very little about how planets are born around such systems. After all, the gravitational interaction between the twin stars plays a vital role in the working of the planetary systems. The study is accepted and published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Life around binary stars
The SVS 13 system contains two stellar embryos with a mass totaling that of the Sun. They are very close to one another. And the distance is about 90 times that between the Sun and the Earth. “Our results have revealed that each star has a disk of gas and dust around it and that. In addition, a larger disk is forming around both stars,” stated Ana Karla Díaz-Rodríguez. She is a lead author. And a researcher at the IAA-CSIC and the UK ALMA Regional Centre at the University of Manchester. “This means that when planets begin to form around these two suns, the building blocks of life will be there,” she revealed.
“This outer disk shows a spiral structure that is feeding matter into the individual disks, and in all of them, planetary systems could form in the future. This is clear evidence for the presence of disks around both stars and the existence of a common disk in a binary system,” she added. The observations obtained in the last 30 years and the new data studied several parameters including tracing their orbit. “This work shows how careful, systematic studies of young stars can provide a remarkably detailed view of their structure and properties,” said Garry Fuller. Fuller is a collaborator from The University of Manchester.