ALMA catches “intruder” redhanded in rarely detected stellar flyby event

As stars grow up, they often interact with their sibling stars—stars growing up near to them in space—but have rarely been observed interacting with outside, or intruder, objects. Scientists have now made observations of an intruder object disturbing the protoplanetary disk around Z Canis Majoris, a star in the Canis Major constellation, which could have major implications for the development of baby planets. Perturbations, including long streams of gas, were observed in detail by the Subaru Telescope in the H-band, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in the Ka-band, and using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array’s Band 6 receiver.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF), NAOJ