Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have imaged the largest and most chaotic site of planetary birth humanity has ever seen.
Appearing like a stunning cosmic bat, this protoplanetary disk, located around 1,000 light-years away, stretches out for around 400 billion years, around 40 times the size of our solar system, out to the ring of cometary bodies known as the Kuiper belt.
This protoplanetary disk with an infant star at its heart has the official designation IRAS 23077+6707, but also has the incredible nickname “Dracula’s Chivito.” But it isn’t just its staggering size and unique nickname that make IRAS 23077+6707 so remarkable.
“The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging, and these new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected,” team leader Kristina Monsch of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) said in a statement. “We’re seeing this disk nearly edge-on, and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking.”
Monsch added that both Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have glimpsed similar structures in other disks, but Dracula’s Chivito provides astronomers with an exceptional perspective that allows them to trace its substructures in visible light at an unprecedented level of detail.
“This makes the system a unique, new laboratory for studying planet formation and the environments where it happens,” Monsch continued.
The unsymmetrical appearance of the gas and dust lanes in Dracula’s Chivito in this stunning Hubble image indicates that dynamic processes are occurring within the disk as its morphology is gradually shaped by interactions with its surroundings.
“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” team member Joshua Bennett Lovell, also an astronomer at the CfA, said. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets — processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”
Not only does this give scientists a better picture of planetary birth, but Dracula’s Chivito also offers a look at what the solar system may have looked like when it was forming planets 4.6 billion years ago, albeit on a much larger scale.
“In theory, IRAS 23077+6707 could host a vast planetary system,” said Monsch. “While planet formation may differ in such massive environments, the underlying processes are likely similar.
“Right now, we have more questions than answers, but these new images are a starting point for understanding how planets form over time and in different environments.”
By the way, in case you are wondering, the “Dracula” element of this protoplanetary disk’s nickname is a playful reference to the Transvaniian heritage of one of the team members behind this research. Meanwhile, a “Chivito” is a massive steak sandwich, an iconic national dish from Uruguay, the homeland of another of the crew of scientists.
Don’t panic, Drac, that’s “steak,” not “stake.”