Education

UF astronomer co-leads study linking gas stream to tilted planetary orbits

A University of Florida astronomy professor helped lead new research suggesting that a massive flow of gas falling into a triple-star system in the Orion constellation gradually warped its planet-forming disk, causing the rings to become misaligned with one another. The study, published August 6 in The Astronomical Journal, offers an alternative to earlier theories that blamed the three stars themselves for the unusual arrangement of GW Orionis. Researchers say the next phase of work involves surveying many more young stars to determine how frequently such gas flows occur and how much they shape the structure of developing planetary systems.

Sources: UF News