ALMA is revolutionizing various areas of astronomy, but the one that he may be contributing most to is the study of dust discs around newly formed stars.
The power of observation, and the specific wavelength at which he observes these objects, allows him to solve with incredible precision these structures of paramount importance in understanding the process of planetary formation.
Recently a group of astronomers used the ALMA, pointed it to a young star, and watched its protostellar disk.
That alone would be fantastic, since it was thought that at the beginning of the life of a star she would not be able to form this type of disc, due to the great magnetic activity.
But the amazing things do not stop there.
The star studied is known as HH 212, located in Orion, about 1300 light-years away from Earth.
The central protoestrela is only 40,000 years old and has a mass equivalent to 1/5 of the mass of the Sun.
Earlier studies had shown that this protoestrel had an accretion disk around it, but with ALMA, astronomers were able to see this disk in detail and observe important features.
Astronomers not only observed the disk in its lateral extension, but could also see its vertical extent.
The disk has 60 AU of radius and shows a dark line in its equatorial region, which makes it resemble a sandwich.
This observation of the ALMA opens another important window in the observation of the accretion discs around protostares, besides rewriting the theory of formation of these disks.
The ALMA, with its impressive resolution, allows you to observe the vertical structure of the disks, which causes astronomers to have ideas about how the grain growth process happens, which is important in the early stages of planetary formation.
With the ALMA you can see how the process of planet formation occurs from the very beginning, or even before it begins.
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