Hubble spots 600bn km wide scaled-up version of our early solar system: Dracula’s Chivito shocks scientists

NASA's Hubble Telescope has discovered the largest known planet-forming disk located 1,000 light-years from Earth. It spans over 600 billion kilometres, around 40 times the diameter of our solar system. Scientists said it is way more "active and chaotic" than they expected. IRAS 23077+6707, nicknamed “Dracula’s Chivito,” has a young star at its centre, which scientists believe may be either a hot, massive star or could even be a pair of stars. This protoplanetary disk is "unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, with wisps of material stretching much farther above and below the disk than astronomers have seen in any similar system", NASA wrote in its blog. This messy environment and the extraordinary size of the disk nearly obscured the star.

Lead author of the study, Kristina Monsch of the Center for Astrophysics, said, "We’re seeing this disk nearly edge-on, and its wispy upper layers and asymmetric features are especially striking. Both Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have glimpsed similar structures in other disks, but IRAS 23077+6707 provides us with an exceptional perspective." This discovery is unique, and a “new laboratory for studying planet formation and the environments where it happens.”

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Planetary disk is lopsided and building new planets

This disk is also asymmetrical, with different features on either side. It has vertically imposing filament-like features on just one side, while the other side appears to have a sharp edge and no visible filaments. This suggests that it is interacting in a different way with its surroundings. “We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” co-investigator Joshua Bennett Lovell said. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets — processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”

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NASA said that Dracula’s Chivito could represent a scaled-up version of our early solar system since its disk mass is estimated at 10 to 30 times that of Jupiter. Our solar system was also once a chaotic region, with cosmic material swirling around, and several bodies crashing into each other. But over time, things settled down, and we got our current home. This is how IRAS 23077+6707 is also expected to develop over millions or billions of years. “In theory, IRAS 23077+6707 could host a vast planetary system. While planet formation may differ in such massive environments, the underlying processes are likely similar," Monsch said.