Daily Telescope: A protostar with a stunning protoplanetary disc

Expanding / FS Tau is a multi-star system.

NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL), G. Kober

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There’s a little too much darkness and not enough light in this world, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We will provide daily horoscopes in other publications. At Ars Technica, we take a different route by drawing inspiration from hyper-realistic images of the universe, full of stars and wonders.

good morning. March 26, Today’s photo is from the Hubble Space Telescope. This indicates a very young multi-star system known as FS Tau.

This system is only about 2.8 million years old. In cosmic time, it’s just a blink of an eye. It is located approximately 450 light years from Earth.

FS Tau A is a very bright object in the center of the image. This is a T Taurus binary system consisting of two young variable stars. FS Tau B is the bright object on the far right, but it is partially obscured by a dark vertical dust band. This is a protostar, and it’s worth looking a little closer at the dust separating her two halves of the star.

According to the astronomer who took this photo, FS Tau B is “a protoplanetary disk, a pancake-like collection of dust and gas left over from star formation that eventually coalesces to form planets.” It is said that it is surrounded by A thick band of dust separates what appears to be the illuminated surface of the disk, visible almost at the edge-on. ”

That’s great.

sauce: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL), G. Kober

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