Historic! ALMA telescope finds first-ever planet-forming disk beyond the Milky Way Galaxy | Tech News

Historic! ALMA telescope finds first-ever planet-forming disk beyond the Milky Way Galaxy

In a historic moment of discovery, astronomers using the ALMA telescope in Chile, snap an extragalactic accretion disk feeding a young star in the large magellanic cloud 160,000 light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Nov 30 2023, 20:48 IST
Fascinating NASA Astronomy Pictures of the Week: Dancer Galaxy, Milky Way and more
planet-forming disk
1/5 Spanish Dancer Galaxy: On May 8th, NASA shared a mesmerizing view of the Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy (NGC 1566). Within the galaxy are blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes which follow two prominent spiral arms. (NASA/ESA/Hubble/Detlev Odenthal)
planet-forming disk
2/5 Earth casts a double shadow: On May 9th, NASA shared a snapshot of the Earth with double shadows captured during a lunar eclipse. The section in the middle is called the Belt of Venus.  (NASA/ Marcella Giulia Pace Sampieri)
planet-forming disk
3/5 Milky Way Galaxy visible in Egyptian Desert's skies: How does the Milky Way Galaxy get its name? Greeks said this white streak was a "river of milk". The ancient Romans called it the Via Galactica, or "road made of milk". (NASA/Amr Abdelwahab)
planet-forming disk
4/5 Fomalhaut's debris disk: It brings a snapshot of the dusty debris disk which surrounds Fomalhaut, which is located just 25 light-years away.  (NASA/ESA/JWST/Andras Gaspar/Alyssa Pagan)
planet-forming disk
5/5 Halley's Dust in the night sky: The remnants of the periodic Comet Halley's debris streams left a surreal view for all stargazers.  (Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava)
planet-forming disk
icon View all Images
Astronomers have made history by discovering the first-ever planet-forming disk outside the Milky Way Galaxy. (AFP)

A groundbreaking discovery has been made by astronomers who identified a swirling disk of material, akin to those surrounding infant stars in the Milky Way Galaxy feeding a young star situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy located 160,000 light-years away. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest Earth-based astronomical project comprising 66 antennas in Northern Chile, the research team led by Durham University scientist Anna McLeod observed the system designated HH 1177 within a massive gas cloud. This marks the first confirmed extragalactic accretion disk ever detected.

First Glimpse of an Extragalactic Accretion Disk

"When I first saw evidence for a rotating structure in the ALMA data, I could not believe that we had detected the first extragalactic accretion disc. It was a special moment," stated McLeod. "We know discs are vital to forming stars and planets in our galaxy, and here, for the first time, we're seeing direct evidence for this in another galaxy," Space.com reported.

You may be interested in

MobilesTablets Laptops
7% OFF
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • Black Titanium
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
23% OFF
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G
  • Green
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 256 GB Storage
Google Pixel 8 Pro
  • Obsidian
  • 12 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage
Apple iPhone 15 Plus
  • Black
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 128 GB Storage

The initial lead to this discovery came from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), which detected a jet emerging from a forming star in HH 1177. The MUSE instrument operates in the visible wavelength range, enabling observations and measurements of light wavelengths to identify different types of matter.

Also read
Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here.

"We discovered a jet being launched from this young massive star, and its presence is a signpost for ongoing disc accretion," added McLeod. To verify the accretion disk's existence, scientists measured the movement of dense gas around the star.

Accretion disks, like the one observed in HH 1177, form when matter descends towards a young star or another accreting object, such as a black hole or neutron star. As the material falls onto these objects, it forms a flattened, spinning disk that gradually feeds matter to the central object.

In an era of rapid technological advancement in astronomical facilities, this discovery offers an exciting opportunity to study star formation at incredible distances and in a different galaxy. The findings are detailed in the article 'A likely Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star,' published in Nature.

Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

First Published Date: 30 Nov, 20:48 IST
NEXT ARTICLE BEGINS