Astronomers discover young binary star system formed 60 years ago

Astronomers have identified a unique binary star system, IRAS 07299−1651, located approximately 5,300 light-years from Earth. Data from an eight-year study suggests that two young stars merged to form this massive binary system only 60 years ago.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers observed an unusual arrangement of matter disks surrounding the protostars. Unlike typical binary systems where disks are coplanar, these disks are misaligned, indicating that the two stars did not originate from the same cloud of gas and dust but instead joined later in their early development.