Nearly half of sun-like stars are in binary or multiple star systems. How do such galaxies affect the formation of planets ? According to a study published in the journal Nature, planetary systems form around binary stars very differently than around single stars such as the sun. The new findings are based on observations of the binary star system NGC1333-IRAS2A about 1,000 light-years from Earth by the ALMA telescope in Chile. From an astronomical point of view, this is a fairly short distance. It formed about 10,000 years ago and is a very young star system. Two of the stars are 200 astronomical units (AU) apart. The binary system is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. Through observations and with the help of computer simulations, the researchers found that the motion of the gas and dust does not follow a continuous pattern. At some point in time, usually a relatively short period of time, i.e. every ten to a hundred years, the motion becomes so intense that the binary system becomes ten to one hundred times brighter than it used to be, until it returns to its normal state . It is speculated that this cyclic pattern can be explained by the duality of binary stars. The two stars orbit each other, and every so often, their combined gravity affects the surrounding disk of gas and dust in some way, causing massive amounts of material to fall toward the star. The falling material will trigger significant heating that will make the star much brighter than usual. These bursts rip apart disks of gas and dust. While this disk will form again, the eruption could still affect the structure of later planetary systems.
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