When young stars coalesce out of a cloud of molecular hydrogen, a disk of remaining material called a protoplanetary disk surrounds them. This disk is where worlds form, and astronomers are improving at peering into those veiled environments and seeing embryonic worlds take shape. Young stars arent the only stars with disks of raw material rotating around them.
Some old, dying stars likewise have disks. Can a second generation of planets form under those conditions?
Worlds form after stars form, however not long after. When the Sun expands as a red giant, it will expel layers of material into area and ultimately broaden enough to destroy the Earth and the other inner worlds. No new planets can form around the white dwarf in this scenario.
Because a stars preliminary mass determines its future, the stars in a binary set have different lifespans. If one of those stars has a similar mass as our Sun, it becomes a red giant and expels product out into area as it dies. What happens to all that material if the star has a binary partner?
This is where a brand-new research study enters into the image. Its title is “A population of transition disks around evolved stars: Fingerprints of planets.” The very first author is KU Leuven astronomer Jacques Kluska. The journal Astronomy and Astrophysics published the paper.
The gravitational pull of the second star can cause the ejected material from the dying star to form a new rotating disk very comparable to the protoplanetary disk around the star when it was young. Astronomers already understood this could take place. Whats brand-new is the proof that a second generation of planets can form in the disk. According to this new study, brand-new worlds are forming around 10% of binary stars in this situation.
” In 10 percent of the evolved binary stars with discs we studied, we see a large cavity in the disc,” said first author Kluska in a press release. “This is an indicator that something is drifting around there that has actually collected all matter in the location of the cavity.”
This is an artists illustration of a binary star system where a 2nd generation of planets is forming. Image Credit: N. Stecki/K. U. Leuven.
Theres most likely just one thing that can form in these disks: worlds. Observations of the passing away star strengthen the likelihood of the item being a world. “In the developed binary stars with a big cavity in the disc, we saw that heavy aspects such as iron were very scarce on the surface of the passing away star,” stated Kluska. “This observation leads one to believe that dust particles rich in these elements were trapped by a planet.”
Astronomers arent sure if these are planets yet, however the evidence is interesting. Its a significant discovery if it turns out that a second generation of worlds is forming in this method. It means that our theory of planetary formation, called the nebular hypothesis, is right however does not go far enough.
” The confirmation or refutation of this amazing way of planet development will be an extraordinary test for the current theories,” according to Professor Hans Van Winckel, head of the KU Leuven Institute of Astronomy.
These disks can just form in certain scenarios and with particular kinds of stars. It needs post-asymptotic giant (post-AGB) stars. Post-AGB stars are cool, luminous stars in a stage of stellar development that stars like our Sun go through. The mass variety for post-AGB stars is from about 0.8 to 5 solar masses.
Post-AGB stars have exhausted their supply of hydrogen. The stars core is primarily inert carbon and oxygen, but its external layer expands and cools. The star becomes a red giant. Then the altering temperature level in the stars core triggers helium fusion. The fusion postpones the stars cooling and expansion for a while, but ultimately, the helium runs out, too. Then the cooling and the expansion continue.
The stars not ended up. The star has lost a lot of its mass by shedding it into area.
A remarkable and typical spiral-in phase of binary advancement triggers the partner star to accrete the material from the dying star. For some reason that astronomers dont understand yet, a circumbinary disk can form instead.
Is that long enough for a huge planet to form? One study from 2018 examined spaces in disks and said that “… if worlds are undoubtedly sculpting these spaces then Saturn-mass worlds need to form within the first ~ 0.5 Myr of the life time of protoplanetary disks.”
The European Southern Observatorys ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) advanced our understanding of young stars and their protoplanetary disks. ALMA found many disks with spaces, which are likely caused by planets forming.
The authors of this research study say that even if the cavity in the disk is from a world, that planet might not always be a second-generation world. “However, it appears more plausible that if the transition disks were produced by a planet, it would be a first-generation world that endured the binary interaction stage,” they compose. “Indeed, it seems that circumbinary worlds are as regular as planets around single stars, despite the reasonably low number of detections.”
This conclusion also fits with some of the observed residential or commercial properties of the dying star in the system. As the lead author Jacques Kluska mentioned, “… we saw that heavy elements such as iron were very scarce on the surface of the passing away star.”
What happened to the iron? The enduring first-generation world mightve accreted it, however just if it were a giant planet. “If such a world is present from the start in the disk, it will efficiently diminish the inner disk from refractory product and produce the deficiency pattern observed on the surface area of the star,” the authors compose in their paper.
Astronomers already understand of a double star where secondary worlds have actually likely formed. Its called NN Serpentis, and several researchers have found planets there. “These planets are candidates for having actually been formed in such second-generation disks,” Kluska and his co-authors compose. “If the planetary scenario is verified, these disks would become an appealing website for studying second-generation world formation and, thus, planet formation scenarios in an unprecedented parameter space.”
The authors plan to study the 10 disks that reveal cavities. They plan to use the European Southern Observatorys large telescopes in Chile to study them more carefully.
More:
Young stars arent the only stars with disks of raw material rotating around them.
The gravitational pull of the 2nd star can trigger the ejected material from the passing away star to form a new turning disk very similar to the protoplanetary disk around the star when it was young. “In the developed binary stars with a big cavity in the disc, we saw that heavy elements such as iron were really limited on the surface of the passing away star,” stated Kluska. Post-AGB stars are cool, luminous stars in a phase of stellar development that stars like our Sun go through. A significant and common spiral-in stage of binary evolution causes the partner star to accrete the product from the dying star.
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