Artistic animation of the stellar movements in GW Orionis

A team of astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the VLT Interferometer and ALMA, in which ESO is a partner, have studied GW Orionis, a triple star system with a peculiar inner region. Unlike the flat planet-forming discs we see around many stars, GW Orionis features a warped disc, deformed by the movements of the three stars at its centre. This ‘fly-through’ animation allows the viewer to see the three stars at the very centre of GW Orionis, as well as its warped disc and the tilted ring that was torned apart from it. The animation is based on a computer model of the inner region of GW Orionis, provided by the team; they were able to reconstruct the 3D orbits of the stars and the 3D shape of the disc from the observational data.

Credit:

ESO/Exeter/Kraus et al./L. Calçada

About the Video

Id:eso2014c
Release date:3 September 2020, 20:00
Related releases:eso2014
Duration:12 s
Frame rate:25 fps

About the Object

Name:GW Orionis
Type:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Triple
Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System
Category:Stars

HD


Medium

Video Podcast
1.4 MB

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