Astronomers believe to have found signs of windy weather around a star that is the infant version of our Sun

Sep 23, 2014 07:54 GMT  ·  By

If researchers with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US are right, a young solar system not far from our planet is a fairly windy place, and no amount of hairspray could possibly be enough to keep anyone's coiffure in place.

Thus, in a recent paper in the Astrophysical Journal, these brainiacs detail how, with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA, for short), they found evidence of windy weather around a T Tauri star.

The astronomers explain that such celestial bodies are basically infant versions of stars like our Sun. Hence, by studying them, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of how our home solar system came into being.

Documenting winds around a star

As detailed in the Astrophysical Journal, T Tauri stars aren't exactly impressive size-wise. They aren't freakishly big, but they aren't embarrassingly small either. Simply put, they are normal, medium-size stars.

Like other celestial bodies of this kind, they have gas and space dust orbiting them. These materials form disks that, in time, can come to birth planets. Hence the fact that they are referred to as protoplanetary disks by the scientific community.

In order to study such disks, researchers have to observe them in infrared and millimeter-wavelength light. This is because, in run-of-the-mill optical light, they are invisible, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory researchers explain.

With the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, scientists have found that a T Tauri star dubbed AS 205 N has a fairly peculiar infrared signature. Simply put, it sometimes emits infrared radiation in rather hectic patterns rather than in an organized manner.

It is believed that this star, which sits at a distance of about 407 light-years from our planet in the constellation Ophiuchus, displays this odd infrared signatures because cosmic winds are acting up inside its protoplanetary disks and consequently disturbing them.

By the looks of it, these winds are causing the star to lose part of the carbon monoxide around it. However, since this star is part and parcel of a binary system, it could also be that the carbon monoxide is leaving AS 205 N because it is being pulled in by this sister's companion.

Why bother to study cosmic winds?

In their paper, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory scientists behind this research project explain that, if cosmic winds are indeed messing with the protoplanetary disks around T Tauri star AS 205 N, chances are that they are also influencing planet-formation processes.

Add to this the fact that, as mentioned, this star is an infant version of our Sun, and it's quite clear why astronomers think that, by further studying AS 205 N, they might get a fresh perspective on how our solar system and even our home planet formed.

Still, before they forward any theories, the researchers must first figure out whether this T Tauri star's peculiar infrared signature is due to the windy weather around it or to the influence of its companion. The scientists expect that the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array will help them solve this puzzle.