<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/NASA" title="NASA">NASA</a>-supported researchers using a Japanese telescope in <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hawaii" class="mw-redirect" title="Hawaii">Hawaii</a> have taken the first clear image of a rare sight: a star surrounded by a spiral-armed disk. Telescope images have shown hints of stars with spiral disks before. The clarity of this image, however, is allowing researchers to study what causes this kind of spiral. Rings called circumstellar disks—composed of gas, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dust" title="Category:Dust">dust</a> and an accumulation of small objects—surround some stars. If the ring contains planets, their gravitational pull could alter its circular form and create the spiral arms. This video take a closer look at the image of star <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAO_206462" class="extiw" title="w:SAO 206462">SAO 206462</a> and raises the question of whether orbiting planets, or something else entirely, created this curious shape.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
2012-05-09
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