June 15, 2022

The HD 53143 system seen by ALMA (Image ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. MacGregor (U. Colorado Boulder); S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

An article accepted for publication in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports the results of a study of the young system of HD 53143, in which a Sun-like star is surrounded by a disk of materials with a structure different from all those known so far which could include a planet. A team of researchers used the ALMA radio telescope to study that disk, which is very eccentric instead of being circular with the star in its center. The disk around HD 53143 has an elliptical shape and the star is in one of the foci of the ellipse, far from the center. The results were presented at the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held these days in Pasadena, California.