Weird Star System's Planet-Forming Disk Goes Vertical Like a Ferris Wheel
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | January 14, 2019 02:19pm ET
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An artist's illustration of the star system HD 98800, which features a pair of stars orbited by a vertical planet-forming disk of material.
Credit: Mark Garlick/University of Warwick
Planet-forming disks of material typically orbit around the equators of stars, but now scientists have discovered such rings can go dramatically awry and encircle the poles of stars instead.
The new study suggests that worlds could exist with polar orbits around pairs of stars, potentially leading to seasons extraordinarily different than Earth's.
Stars are born within clouds of gas and dust. The gravitational pull of each star draws such material into spiraling orbits around it. Although clumps of this cloud start off moving in random directions at random speeds, as the cloud collapses, the clumps collide and merge. The result over time is a flattened disk called a protoplanetary disk that usually spins in the same direction as its star and surrounds the star's equator. The planets that emerge from such a disk also typically orbit around the star's equator, as is the case with the worlds of our solar system. [Secrets of Planet Birth Revealed in Amazing ALMA Radio Telescope Images]
Prior work found that nearly all young stars are initially surrounded by protoplanetary disks. In the case of protoplanetary disks around single stars, at least a third go on to form planets, said lead study author Grant Kennedy, an astronomer at the University of Warwick in England.
More:
https://www.space.com/42994-weird-binary-stars-vertical-planetary-disk.html
