ALMA Images Spiral Protostellar Disk near Milky Way’s Center

A schematic view of the history of the accretion disk and the flyby object: the three plots starting from the bottom left are snapshots from the numerical simulation, capturing the system right at the flyby event, 4,000 years after, and 8,000 years after, respectively; the top right image is from the ALMA observations, showing the disk with spirals and the two objects around it, corresponding to the system at 12,000 years after the flyby event. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-022-01681-4.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a massive accretion disk with two spiral arms around a 32-solar-mass protostar in the Galactic center. Protostellar disks — accretion disks around newborn stars — are essential components in star formation because they continuously feed gas into protostars from the environment. In this sense, they … Continue reading ALMA Images Spiral Protostellar Disk near Milky Way’s Center