A Hubble Space Telescope image captures a portion of the reflection nebula IC 2631, which contains a protostar, the hot, dense core of a forming star that is accumulating gas and dust. . Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Astrophysicists have provided new insights into the birth of a rare young massive protostar which is 19 times heavier than the Sun1. The protostar is in a star-forming region, W42, which is nearly 3800 parsecs (or 12,394 light years) away from Earth.
This type of protostar explodes as supernovae at the end of its life (protostars 8 times heavier than the sun are likely to end up as supernovas). The explosions are one of the major sources of life-forming heavy elements in the universe, say researchers at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India.
Protostars evolve as massive stars, which shape the universe with their winds and outflow of matter. Despite their importance, little is known about how protostars form.
The scientists investigated the formation using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a system of radio telescopes in northern Chile. They discovered a rare, disk-like structure around the protostar, which drives a flow of molecules from its poles.
The team, led by Lokesh Dewangan, found that the star is embedded in the central hub of a molecular cloud, surrounded by very long filaments which suck in matter. Analysing the way protostars suck in matter, they found that protostars’ cores do not accumulate all the mass before their cores collapse.
These insights are important as the births of massive stars produce a flood of ultraviolet photons, radiation pressure and drive strong winds which allow them to interact with the interstellar medium between star systems. This aids the birth of other low-mass protostars.
