March 23, 2020

Two examples of aligned and misaligned protoplanetary disks around binary stars

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the orbits of protoplanetary disks in binary systems, where different geometries were found. A team of astronomers led by Ian Czekala of the University of California at Berkeley used the ALMA radio telescope to study star systems in formation around two stars, which in jargon are called circumbinary disks. The conclusion is that the disks that orbit the more compact binary systems share almost the same plane while the disks that orbit the wider binary systems have significantly tilted orbital planes.