Astronomers take a closer look at a young circumbinary disk
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-astronomers-closer-young-circumbinary-disk.html
In a research paper published Apr. 3 on arXiv.org, astronomers presented a close-up view of the circumbinary disk HD 142527 obtained with the Atacama Large
Millimeter and submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. The new observations reveal the morphology and kinematics of the gas and dust emission in this disk.
HD 142527 is a young binary system with an estimated age between 2 and 5 million years. Located some 510 light years away from the Earth, this binary is best
known for its protoplanetary disk. The system's primary star has a mass of about 2.4 solar masses, while the secondary star, with an orbital radius between
15 to 20 AU, is much less massive—from 0.1 to 0.3 solar masses.
The binary is at the center of a large elliptical dust cavity of approximately 120 AU in radius and of an asymmetric disk with a dense dust crescent. The dust
is visible up to an orbital radius of 300 AU and traces several spiral arcs. Moreover, the primary star appears to be surrounded by a much smaller dusty disk.
Now, a team of astronomers led by Yann Boehler of the Rice University in Houston, Texas, has presented the results of new, more detailed ALMA observations of
HD 142527, which uncover new insights into the nature of its disk.
