New research has observed mysterious O-type stars that emit a blast of ultraviolet radiation, abruptly ending the early formation process of planets around young stars.
Just like in the "Star Wars" movie series, according to a press release, these "death star" O-types in the Orion Nebula have been seen destroying planets forming around young proplyd stars. The O-types' ultraviolet radiation will blow away the dust and gasses necessary to form a planet near one of these proplyds before it gets a chance to become a planet.
The Canadian and U.S. researchers published their work in the Astrophysical Journal and used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) for their work.
"O-type stars, which are really monsters compared to our Sun, emit tremendous amounts of ultraviolet radiation and this can play havoc during the development of young planetary systems," study lead author Rita Mann, an astronomer with the National Research Council of Canada in Victoria, said in the release. "Using ALMA, we looked at dozens of embryonic stars with planet-forming potential and, for the first time, found clear indications where protoplanetary disks simply vanished under the intense glow of a neighboring massive star."
Stars like the sun almost always formed in a congested space field like the Orion Nebula. Over time, millions of years even, gas and dust form to create full star systems with large and small planets.
While massive and short-lived stars' explosions are considered necessary for star formation, they can also be detrimental if the new star system drifts too close.
"Massive stars are hot and hundreds of times more luminous than our Sun," James Di Francesco, also with the National Research Council of Canada, said in the release. "Their energetic photons can quickly deplete a nearby protoplanetary disk by heating up its gas, breaking it up, and sweeping it away."
Combined with previous studies, the researchers found that these O-type "death stars" could destroy most of the materials needed to form a planet the size of Jupiter if it was close enough.
"Taken together, our investigations with ALMA suggest that extreme UV regions are not just inhospitable, but they're downright hazardous for planet formation. With enough distance, however, it's possible to find a much more congenial environment," said Mann. "This work is really the tip of the iceberg of what will come out of ALMA; we hope to eventually learn how common solar systems like our own are."
