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Planet formation

Twin planetary systems in embryo

Nature volume 395, pages 320–321 (1998)Cite this article

Size does matter, especially when it comes to radio telescopes. With a maximum extent of 36 km, the Very Large Array (VLA) of 27 radio telescopes yields sharper images at millimetre wavelengths than any other instrument. Rodríguez et al., reporting on page 355 of this issue1, have used it to produce the most detailed millimetre-wave image to date of the L1551 IRS5 system, confirming the existence of what are probably planet-forming disks around both protostars in this binary system. Their analysis has also thrown up some surprises, and may have considerable implications for the formation of giant planets.

About 500 light years away, Lynds 1551 is an interstellar cloud of molecular gas and dust that is producing young Sun-type stars at a tremendous rate. Embedded within this active cloud is a strong source of infrared radiation, L1551 IRS5, which on its discovery was believed to be a newly formed protostar (less than a million years old)whose optical radiation is degraded to infrared wavelengths through absorption and re-emission by the intervening dust grains. L1551 IRS5 is celebrated as the young stellar object (YSO) that yielded the first evidence for large-scale outflows of molecular gas, flowing in opposite directions from the young star2. These bipolar outflows are now known to be nearly ubiquitous among YSOs. But with the new observations by Rodríguez and his colleagues1, L1551 IRS5 has even more reason to be celebrated.

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Figure 1: Superimposed solar systems.
Figure 2: Exiled world?

HST/NASA

References

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  1. the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington DC, 20015-1305, USA

    Alan P. Boss

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  1. Alan P. Boss
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Boss, A. Twin planetary systems in embryo. Nature 395, 320–321 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/26331

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