Th. Henning

Around young stars, disks of gas and dust swirl: these are the construction sites for future planets. In the binary system HD 142527, such a disk is especially intriguing. Astronomers aimed three instruments working in the infrared range (thermal emission from dust) at it and saw a surprising picture.

When a young star ejects jets of gas, they slam into the surrounding cloud like a fist into a pillow. At the impact site, the gas is compressed and heated — creating a shock wave. In this hot zone, atoms and simple molecules collide and assemble into larger compounds, known as complex organic molecules.

The cosmic spectacle unfolds on the stage of Galaxy галактики Centaurus A. In the lead role: a supermassive сверхмассивная чёрная дыра with a powerful jet that pierces space for hundreds of thousands of light-years.

A disk of gas and dust spins around the young star HV Tau C, nearly edge-on to us. The James Webb Space Telescope examined its spectrum and detected the glow of hot molecular hydrogen (H₂). This revealed a wide, bipolar wind blasting from the inner regions far beyond the disk.