NASA scientists searching deep space images noticed something oddly familiar floating inside a dark cloud.
A glowing hamburger. At least that’s what it looked like from Earth.
A thick dark center cut across a bright orange shape suspended in space.
The object stretched across a region far larger than our solar system.
At first glance, the image almost looked artificial. It wasn’t.
The strange structure sat inside one of the most violent stellar nurseries astronomers have studied recently. That discovery pushed researchers to examine the region more closely.
What they found surrounding the object looked even stranger than the so-called “cosmic hamburger” itself.
How NASA found “takeout” hidden inside a stellar nursery
NASA’s esteemed Hubble Space Telescope is behind the ‘hamburger’ discovery.
A turbulent star-forming region inside the Milky Way caught astronomers’ attention.
That region is thick with dense gas, dust, and newborn stars. But one object immediately stood out from the rest of the matter.
A huge dark disk structure with glowing material around it stretched an incredible 40 times wider than our solar system.
Astronomers soon had a nickname: the “cosmic hamburger.”
Thick dust curtained all visible light, which is why the center was so dark.
But brighter material above and below reflected surrounding radiant starlight outward. This detail turned out to be significant.
Researchers realized they were looking at a massive protoplanetary disk.
These phenomenon form around young stars when planets are being born.
Most known examples appear much smaller and calmer. This one looked chaotic.
Jets of material blasted outward from the region while nearby stars flooded the area with radiation.
A galactic combat zone for newborn worlds
Planet formation usually sounds peaceful in illustrations.
However, in this region, young stars sat hustled together inside turbulent clouds of gas and dust. Radiation and stellar winds constantly battered nearby material.
Researchers described the environment as unusually violent for planet formation.
That totally changed the investigation.
Astronomers began studying how disks survive under such hectic conditions.
Some structures inside the region already showed signs of erosion.
Powerful ultraviolet radiation slowly stripped gas away from exposed disks nearby.
Yet the “cosmic hamburger” remained enormous. This was another surprise for researchers.
The object appeared massive enough to resist complete destruction despite the surrounding mayhem.
Jets streaming away from the system revealed another clue.
Material flowed forth from the young star being nursed inside the disk. This suggested active growth was ongoing deep within the structure.
The surrounding cloud also contained several young stellar objects in the formation process.
NASA Science realized they were observing planetary nursery pandemonium in real time.
The “cosmic hamburger” explained: What a space sandwich tells us about the origins of Earth
NASA Science now believes the abnormal object is a giant protoplanetary disk surrounding a fresh star.
Astronomers believe planets may eventually form inside the dense material orbiting the hidden star.
The dark middle section consists of thick dust blocking visible light from passing through.
Brighter upper and lower regions reflect surrounding starlight instead.
Researchers nicknamed it the “cosmic hamburger” because the layered structure resembles a sandwich floating through space.
Stars and planetary systems are actively forming there right now.
But this nursery looks unusually unstable
Radiation from nearby stars constantly disrupts surrounding gas clouds and disks.
Even so, the massive disk continues to survive inside the turbulence. That became one of the most important discoveries.
Astronomers rarely observe planet-forming structures this large in such violent environments.
We got a glimpse into how planetary systems may survive difficult beginnings. Including systems very different from our own.
Even inside one of the galaxy’s harshest stellar nurseries, giant planet-forming disks can still endure for millennia.
Long enough for worlds to begin taking shape.
Billions of years ago, our own calm planet might have started with same level of planetary pandemonium.