Scientists are leaving space admirers with another tasty treat before year’s end. Utilizing the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured a stunning picture of the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed, which, incidentally, resembles a giant celestial sandwich. The massive collection of dust and gas, which astronomers term the Dracula Sandwich, is situated about 1,000 light-years from Earth and spans roughly 400 billion miles. For perspective, NASA estimates this disk is about 40 times the diameter of our own Solar System.
But beyond being appetite-inducing, astronomers state that further study of the vampire disk could yield fresh insights into the early formation of other planetary systems, perhaps even our own. Researchers further suggest that this unusually volatile disk may “represent an enlarged model of our early Solar System.” The astronomers’ new findings were detailed this week in The Astrophysical Journal.
Vampire Disk Offers Views into a Planet’s Dramatic Past
Planetary disks, sometimes known as planetary nurseries, are the building blocks of solar systems. All planetary systems initially develop as disks of gas and dust around young stars. Planets eventually take shape as material within the disk clumps together and accretes. This disk, officially designated as IRAS 23077+6707, has an estimated mass 10–30 times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System. Astronomers observe that it is both the largest and one of the most peculiar observed disks, featuring filamentary characteristics on only one of its two sides, suggesting it is being sculpted by dynamic events like recent infalls of dust and gas. The result is a composition that is “unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent.”
“These new Hubble images demonstrate that planet nurseries can be far more active and tumultuous than we had anticipated,” remarked Kristine Monsch, a study co-author and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Meanwhile, this eerie moniker is a nod to the astronomers’ home regions. One hails from Transylvania (hence Dracula), and another is from Uruguay, where a sandwich called a “chivito” is a national dish. The researchers claim the image of the flattened disk resembles a hamburger, though it could arguably be argued it looks more like a hot dog.
Don’t Count Hubble Out
The Hubble Telescope (launched in 1990) may not boast the most powerful onboard technology compared to the recently deployed James Webb Space Telescope, but it continues to deliver significant scientific breakthroughs regularly. Just this year, Hubble spotted a rare fragment from a collision of large space rocks, showed a white dwarf consuming an object resembling Pluto, and created the largest-ever photomosiac of the relatively nearby Andromeda galaxy.
“Hubble has enabled us to witness the chaotic processes that shape disks as new planets are built—processes we don’t yet fully comprehend but can now investigate in a completely new manner,” added co-investigator Joshua Bennett of the Center for Astrophysics.
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