According to CNET, star forming cloud l483 looks normal from a distance. But when a team of astrophysicists led by Northwestern University looked closely, things became more and more strange They noticed that its magnetic field was strangely distorted. Then when they examined a newborn star in the cloud, they found a star hidden behind it The new findings provide insights into binary star formation and how magnetic fields affect the earliest stages of star formation. The study was published this week in the Astrophysical Journal.
Although the researchers of this new study are still not completely sure about the reasons behind this strange phenomenon, the general assumption is that when one of these "star brothers" approaches the other, "it changes the dynamics of the cloud and distorts its magnetic field," Erin Cox, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and the main author of the paper, said in a statement.
In addition to telling a beautiful story about the fate of the universe, the team's strange details of magnetic anomalies may lead to quite large-scale discoveries. For example, understanding the habitability of exoplanets and the behavior of stars similar to the sun may even help find extraterrestrial life.
This is because deciphering any and all secrets of binary systems -- like the two binaries that have attracted attention for disrupting the magnetic field of their own star "nursery" -- may reveal what planets near them might look like.
Cox said: "the formation of planets and stars is simultaneous, and the binary stars will dynamically interact with each other. In our general investigation of exoplanets, we know that there are planets around these binary systems, but we don't know much about how these planets are different from those living around isolated stars."
The earth lives around an isolated star, the sun, but will there be a kind of earth living next to the star Gemini?
For example, Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to us. It has two main stars in it. Many experts believe that this point in the universe may be friendly to life. Some even plan to send a super high-speed spacecraft with imaging instruments one day, hoping to find such signs of extraterrestrial life.
Prior to this ambitious trip, information about the dynamics of binary stars can greatly contribute to this exploration.
Cox and other scientists came across this strange pair of binary "brothers" after tracking a premonition of a famous star forming cloud called l483.
At first, there was nothing special about l483 - it was a standard stellar "nursery" about 100 times that of our solar system. It spewed out stellar material with great vitality and helped produce a large number of rainbow stars. It even has a fairly normal looking magnetic field, parallel to the hypersonic spacecraft jet as expected.
"At first, it was in line with theoretical predictions," Cox said. "But theory can say one thing, and observation can say another."