The birth of a star

3D Model

A young accreting star (at the center of the scene) surrounded by an accretion disk (in blue). The age is less than about ten million years. The prototype of this class of objects is T Tauri, a young star in the Taurus star-forming region. The model describes the effects of multiple flares (localized releases of energy producing a sudden increase of temperature up to values well above 10 millions Kelvin) occurring in proximity of the accretion disk . The flares lead to the formation of an extended corona composed by hot loops (in red-orange), linking the disk to the protostar. Furthermore, the flares perturb the disk triggering accretion of mass in the form of downfalling streams (accretion columns).

MHD simulation performed with the PLUTO code.

References: Orlando et al. 2011, MNRAS 415, 3380; Colombo et al. 2019, A&A 624, id.A50.

Credits: INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo. The Milky Way image is from ESO/S. Brunier.