June 14, 2020

The protostars in IRAS 16293-2422 A

An article accepted for publication in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports observations of a pair of protostars in a system in its formation phase cataloged as IRAS 16293-2422 A. A team of researchers from the astrochemistry group of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Munich, Germany, used the ALMA radio telescope to study the two protostars, cataloged as A1 and A2, since it can detect the emissions not filtered by the materials that surround them, also forming the circumstellar disks from to which planets may form in the future. The two protostars are in the initial phase of their formation and are still surrounded by the molecular cloud that constitutes the source of the gas and dust that are forming them.