An Unusual Star System

[Recusant]

I didn't call it "unique" in the title, because even though it's the first of its kind discovered so far, the Universe is damn big, inhabited by an unimaginable number of star systems. So chances are it isn't unique. Still, an interesting discovery.

"Weird binary system spotted with three rings around two stars" | New Scientist

Image credit: Christian Brinch

Astronomers have never seen anything like it: two stars, each swaddled in planet-forming discs – and then a third, larger disc around the entire lot. Named IRS 43, the system is 400 light years away from Earth.

The cosmos is chock-full of stars surrounded by planets and planet-forming discs. It's also home to many binary systems in which each star has its own planetary disc – a rotating disc of gas and dust. We even know of a few planets that orbit both stars in binary systems, though these worlds are rare.

In IRS 43, all three discs are skewed relative to each other, making the system unique in the observed cosmos, says team member Christian Brinch at the University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark.

Both stars in IRS 43 are very young and about the size of the sun. Each has a disc that is about the size of our solar system, and is probably in the process of forming planets.

The planets can't be seen directly because they are obscured by dust, but we can trace the regions where they are forming using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in northern Chile . . .

[Continues . . .]

[Tank]

Wow!

[Essie Mae]

Amazing🌌

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Reminds me of a UFC fight.  The two stars are battling it out in the octagon and the larger disc represents the fans waiting to see who will win. 

[Magdalena]

Reminds me of a UFC fight.  The two stars are battling it out in the octagon and the larger disc represents the fans waiting to see who will win.

My friend, can I have one of those Organic cigarettes that you smoke? 

[OldGit]

Best keep clear - the evil Ng have a large orbital fort there to harass the noble and peace-loving Whooples.

[Icarus]

Clearly...God works in mysterious ways.

[xSilverPhinx]

Really interesting.