Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. For the first time in visible light, Hubble has revealed the disk is unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, with wisps of material stretching much farther above and below the disk than astronomers have seen in any similar system. Strangely, more extended filaments are only visible on one side of the disk. The findings, which published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal, mark a new milestone for Hubble and shed light on how planets may form in extreme environments, as NASA’s missions lead humanity’s exploration of the universe and our place in it.
天文学家使用美国宇航局的哈勃太空望远镜拍摄了迄今为止观察到的围绕一颗年轻恒星运行的最大原行星盘的图像。哈勃首次在可见光下揭示了这个圆盘出人意料的混乱和湍流，一缕缕物质在圆盘上方和下方延伸得比天文学家在任何类似系统中看到的都要远。奇怪的是，更多延伸的细丝仅在圆盘的一侧可见。周二在《天体物理学杂志》上发表的这一发现标志着哈勃望远镜的一个新里程碑，并揭示了行星在极端环境中如何形成，因为美国宇航局的任务引领了人类对宇宙和我们在宇宙中的地位的探索。
Located roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth, IRAS 23077+6707, nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” spans nearly 400 billion miles — 40 times the diameter of our solar system to the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt of cometary bodies. The disk obscures the young star within it, which scientists believe may be either a hot, massive star, or a pair of stars. And the enormous disk is not only the largest known planet-forming disk; it’s also shaping up to be one of the most unusual.
IRAS 23077+6707 距离地球约 1,000 光年，绰号“德古拉的奇维托”，横跨近 4000 亿英里——是太阳系直径的 40 倍，一直到彗星体柯伊伯带的外缘。圆盘遮住了其中的年轻恒星，科学家认为这可能是一颗炽热的大质量恒星，也可能是一对恒星。这个巨大的圆盘不仅是已知最大的行星形成盘，而且还是已知的最大的行星形成盘。它也正在成为最不寻常的之一。
“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,” said lead author Kristina Monsch of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). “We’re seeing this disk nearly edge-on and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking. Both Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have glimpsed similar structures in other disks, but IRAS 23077+6707 provides us with an exceptional perspective — allowing us 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.”
天体物理中心的主要作者克里斯蒂娜·蒙施（Kristina Monsch）表示：“我们所看到的细节水平在原行星盘成像中是罕见的，这些新的哈勃图像表明，行星托儿所可能比我们预期的更加活跃和混乱。”哈佛与史密森尼 (CfA)。 “我们看到这个圆盘几乎是边缘朝上的，其纤细的上层和不对称特征尤其引人注目。哈勃和美国宇航局的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜都在其他圆盘中瞥见了类似的结构，但IRAS 23077+6707为我们提供了一个特殊的视角——使我们能够在可见光下以前所未有的细节水平追踪其子结构。这使得该系统成为研究行星形成及其发生环境的独特的新实验室。”
The nickname “Dracula’s Chivito” playfully reflects the heritage of its researchers—one from Transylvania and another from Uruguay, where the national dish is a sandwich called a chivito. The edge-on disk resembles a hamburger, with a dark central lane flanked by glowing top and bottom layers of dust and gas.
“德古拉的奇维托”这个绰号有趣地反映了其研究人员的传统——一个来自特兰西瓦尼亚，另一个来自乌拉圭，那里的国菜是一种叫做“奇维托”的三明治。这个边缘朝上的圆盘就像一个汉堡包，有一条黑暗的中央通道，两侧是发光的顶部和底部的灰尘和气体层。
The impressive height of these features wasn’t the only thing that captured the attention of scientists. The new images revealed that vertically imposing filament-like features appear on just one side of the disk, while the other side appears to have a sharp edge and no visible filaments. This peculiar, lopsided structure suggests that dynamic processes, like the recent infall of dust and gas, or interactions with its surroundings, are shaping the disk.
这些令人印象深刻的高度并不是引起科学家注意的唯一因素。新图像显示，垂直方向上的细丝状特征仅出现在圆盘的一侧，而另一侧似乎具有锋利的边缘并且没有可见的细丝。这种奇特的、不平衡的结构表明，动态过程，比如最近灰尘和气体的流入，或者与周围环境的相互作用，正在塑造圆盘。
“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” said co-investigator Joshua Bennett Lovell, also an astronomer at the CfA. “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.”
“我们惊讶地发现这个圆盘是多么不对称，”共同研究员约书亚·贝内特·洛弗尔（Joshua Bennett Lovell）说，他也是 CfA 的天文学家。 “哈勃为我们提供了一个前排座位，让我们能够了解在形成新行星时塑造圆盘的混沌过程——我们尚未完全理解这些过程，但现在可以以全新的方式进行研究。”
All planetary systems form from disks of gas and dust encircling young stars. Over time, the gas accretes onto the star, and planets emerge from the remaining material. IRAS 23077+6707 may represent a scaled-up version of our early solar system, with a disk mass estimated at 10 to 30 times that of Jupiter — ample material for forming multiple gas giants. This, plus the new findings, makes it an exceptional case for studying the birth of planetary systems.
所有行星系统都是由环绕年轻恒星的气体和尘埃盘形成的。随着时间的推移，气体聚集到恒星上，行星从剩余的物质中出现。 IRAS 23077+6707 可能代表了我们早期太阳系的放大版本，盘质量估计为木星的 10 到 30 倍——有足够的材料形成多个气态巨行星。这加上新的发现，使其成为研究行星系统诞生的一个特殊案例。
“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.”
“理论上，IRAS 23077+6707 可以拥有一个巨大的行星系统，”蒙施说。 “虽然行星的形成在如此巨大的环境中可能有所不同，但潜在的过程可能是相似的。目前，我们的问题多于答案，但这些新图像是了解行星如何随着时间的推移和在不同的环境中形成的起点。”
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
哈勃太空望远镜已经运行了三十多年，并不断做出突破性的发现，塑造我们对宇宙的基本理解。哈勃望远镜是 NASA 和 ESA（欧洲航天局）之间的国际合作项目。美国宇航局位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的戈达德太空飞行中心负责管理望远镜和任务操作。总部位于丹佛的洛克希德·马丁航天公司也支持戈达德的任务运营。位于巴尔的摩的太空望远镜科学研究所由天文学研究大学协会运营，为美国宇航局进行哈勃科学操作。