New Scientist
Image: WilzDezign
Unlike human infants, newborn stars seem to have a way to stop themselves getting too hyper for their own good. When stars form from a spinning disc of gas and dust, they should spin ever faster as gravity pulls this matter in towards the centre – just as pirouetting ice skaters spin faster as they retract their arms – and so throw material back out. Yet for some reason this doesn’t happen.
Now researchers have shown that a young star’s magnetic field could slow the disc’s overall spin by helping to get rid of the fastest-spinning material, removing it in giant perpendicular plumes. “Lots of people have seen these jets moving rapidly away from forming stars, but we never understood why they were so well-formed,” says Philip Lucas at the University of Hertfordshire. Read more on newscientist.com…
