June 14, 2024

The WL20S system in a combination of ALMA and Webb observations

At the 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, a study was presented of what turned out to be a pair of stars inside the WL20 group, cataloged as WL20S. The authors of this study combined observations conducted with the ALMA radio telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope to obtain the information necessary to establish that in that system there are two young stars, and not one as astronomers thought, which formed between 2 and 4 million years ago. Both stars are surrounded by disks of materials in which there could be planets forming and parallel jets of materials emitted by the two stars.