Space

Photo Story: A Cosmic Pretzel

cde.news desk 4 October 2019, 11:01 · 1 min read

epa07894503 An undated handout photo made available by ther European Southern Observatory (ESO) on 04 October 2019 shows an image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding with material from their surrounding birth disk, unprecedented captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The complex network of dust structures distributed in spiral shapes remind of the loops of a pretzel. These observations shed new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars and help astronomers determine the conditions in which binary stars are born. EPA-EFE/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Alves et al. / HANDOUT BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

An undated handout photo made available by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) issued on 04 October 2019 shows an image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding with material from their surrounding birth disk, unprecedented captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

The complex network of dust structures distributed in spiral shapes remind of the loops of a pretzel.

These observations shed new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars and help astronomers determine the conditions in which binary stars are born.

Photo: EPA-EFE/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Alves et al.