Peering into the complexities of star creation, an international research team has unveiled striking insights about the formation of triple star systems. Led by Professor Jeong-Eun Lee from Seoul National University, the team turned to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to investigate the intricate gas structure surrounding the protostars in the triple system, IRAS 04239+2436. Through their study, they picked up the radio signals of sulfur monoxide (SO) molecules, akin to hearing a whisper in a bustling crowd. These signals acted like cosmic breadcrumbs, leading the team to the discovery of three colossal spiral arms. These arms were found to serve as 'streamers,' a cosmic conveyor belt transporting material to the newborn stars. By juxtaposing their observations with numerical simulations led by Professor Tomoaki Matsumoto from Hosei University, the team uncovered the mysterious origins of these streamers. This marks the first time we've understood how these streamers form amidst the dynamic dance of star formation, shedding light on a process as enthralling as it is complex.
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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) -the largest astronomical project in existence- is a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed of 66 high precision antennas located in northern Chile. ALMA is an international partnership of ESO (Europe), NSF (U.S) and NINS (Japan) together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile We love the Cosmos!