Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2016

SPACE CHRONICLES Sharpest view ever of dusty disc around aging star A s they approach the ends of their lives many stars develop stable discs of gas and dust around them. This material was eject- ed by stellar winds, whilst the star was passing through the red giant stage of its evolution. These discs resemble those that form planets around young stars. But up to now astronomers have not been able to compare the two types, formed at the beginning and the end of the stellar life cycle. Although there are many discs asso- ciated with young stars that are suf- ficiently near to us to be studied in depth, there are no corresponding old stars with discs that are close by ESO T he Very Large Telescope Inter- ferometer at ESO’s Paranal Ob- servatory in Chile has obtained the sharpest view ever of the dusty disc around the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431. For the first time such discs can be compared to the discs around young stars — and they look surprisingly similar. It is even possible that a disc appearing at the end of a star’s life might also create a second generation of planets. The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image, with the brighter central star removed. The background view shows the surroundings of this star in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). [ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2]