Scientists Used The Unique Hydrogen Radio Recombination Lines on MWC 349A to Reveal Hidden Collimated Jets
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the masers around the strange star MWC 349A, scientists have discovered something unexpected: a never-before-seen jet of matter erupting from the star’s gaseous disk at incredibly high speeds. Moreover, they believe that the jet is caused by strong magnetic forces surrounding the star. The discovery could help researchers understand the nature and evolution of massive stars, as well as how hydrogen masers form in space.
The new observations were presented today at a press conference at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington.
The massive star, about 30 times the mass of the Sun, is known to be one of the brightest radio sources in the sky and one of the few known objects to have hydrogen masers.
Such masers help amplify microwave radio emission, thereby making it easier to study processes that are usually too small to be seen with the naked eye. It was this feature that allowed researchers to map the disk of MWC 349A for the first time.
