A Cosmic Pretzel

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured this unprecedented image of two circumstellar disks, in which baby stars are growing, feeding with material from their surrounding birth disk. 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.

Credit:

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Alves et al.

About the Image

Id:eso1916a
Type:Observation
Release date:4 October 2019, 10:00
Related releases:eso1916
Size:1881 x 1371 px

About the Object

Name:[BHB2007] 11
Type:Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Constellation:Ophiuchus
Category:Stars

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Coordinates

Position (RA):17 11 23.11
Position (Dec):-27° 24' 32.88"
Field of view:0.03 x 0.02 arcminutes
Orientation:North is -0.0° left of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Millimeter
H2CO
1.3 mmAtacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
Band 6