An international group of astrophysicists, led by Ossak Capital University and Kyushu University, studied young stars in the Small Magellan Cloud using the ALMA telescope. In a study published in The Astrophic Journal Letters, scientists report the first detection of a bipolar gap in a young star with low metality, hydrogen-intensive elements and helium.
The bipolar end is two continuous streams of gas emitted from the poles of a star, a process that has been detected in many protostellar systems, but all of the observations concerned only stars with high levels of heavy elements, with metal properties comparable to the Sun and higher.
In a new study, the authors observed the bipolar discharge of carbon monoxide , showing that gas was emitted from the poles of that star at a speed of 54,000 km/h in both directions, fully consistent with models built for stars with a large number of heavy elements.
Heavy elements in interstellar matter have a significant impact on the star formation mechanism. In the early universe, the heavy elements were lower than in the modern universe. Small Magellanovo Cloudco, one of the nearest galaxies to the Earth, is characterized by a low concentration of elements heavier than helium. The metallicity of stars is comparable to the same parameter for galaxies that existed about 10 billion years ago.
Researchers believe that the bipolar end in modern systems slows the rotation of young stars and accelerates their growth.
On the cover: Small Magellanovo Cloud. Image: ESO/VISTA VMC