November — Curious spiral spotted by ALMA around red giant star R Sculptoris (data visualisation)

Observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed an unexpected spiral structure in the material around the old star R Sculptoris. This feature has never been seen before and is probably caused by a hidden companion star orbiting the star. This slice through the new ALMA data reveals the shell around the star, which shows up as the outer circular ring, as well as a very clear spiral structure in the inner material.

The original image can be downloaded in high resolution on https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1239a/