An international team of researchers has discovered a very young star that is in the
Newborn star X3a inside the X3 dust cloud near the galactic center of the Milky Way. Images: Florian Peißker et al., The Astrophysical Journal
The newborn star X3a is ten times larger andfifteen times heavier than the sun. Astrophysicists believe it formed inside a dust cloud orbiting a giant black hole and dropped into its current orbit after it formed.
Researchers suggest that protected fromDue to the gravitational influence of a supermassive black hole and intense radiation, a sufficiently dense cloud could form in the outer ring of gas and dust at the center of the galaxy. The mass of such a cloud was about a hundred times greater than that of the sun, and under the influence of its own gravity it collapsed into one or more protostars.
It turns out that at a distance of several lightyears from the black hole, there is a region that satisfies the conditions for star formation. This region, a ring of gas and dust, is quite cold and protected from destructive radiation.
Florian Peisker, astrophysicist and research leader at the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Cologne
Astrophysicists believe that low temperatures andThe high density inside the gas and dust ring creates an environment in which clouds with hundreds of solar masses can form. They can move very quickly towards the black hole.
Simulation of X3a formation. Video: Florian Peißker
Since such dust and gas rings can befound in other galaxies, a similar star formation mechanism can work there as well. This means that, contrary to traditional ideas, many young stars can be hidden in the centers of galaxies.
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