A misaligned protostellar disk fed by gas streamers in a barred spiral-like massive dense core
arXiv:2509.15527 · doi:10.1126/sciadv.ady6953
Abstract
High-mass stars, born in massive dense cores (MDCs), profoundly impact the cosmic ecosystem through feedback processes and metal enrichment, yet little is known about how MDCs assemble and transfer mass across scales to form high-mass young stellar objects (HMYSOs). Using multi-scale (40-2500 au) observations of an MDC hosting an HMYSO, we identify a coherent dynamical structure analogous to barred spiral galaxies: three 20,000 au spiral arms feed a 7,500 au central bar, which channels gas to a 2,000 au pseudodisk. Further accretion proceeds through the inner structures, including a Keplerian disk and an inner disk (100 au), which are thought to be driving a collimated bipolar outflow. This is the first time that these multi-scale structures (spiral arms, bar, streamers, envelope, disk, and outflow) have been simultaneously observed as a physically coherent structure within an MDC. Our discovery suggests that well-organized hierarchical structures play a crucial role during the gas accretion and angular momentum build-up of a massive disk.
References in corpus (28)
- Array Programming with NumPy
- Structural Analysis of Molecular Clouds: Dendrograms
- ATLASGAL --- properties of a complete sample of Galactic clumps
- A protostellar system fed by a streamer of 10,500 au length
- Trigonometric parallaxes of star forming regions in the Sagittarius spiral arm
- ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -- I. Survey description and a first look at G9.62+0.19
- Gravity Driven Magnetic Field at ~1000 au Scales in High-mass Star Formation
- L483: Warm Carbon-Chain Chemistry Source Harboring Hot Corino Activity
- ALMA resolves the spiraling accretion flow in the luminous OB cluster forming region G33.92+0.11
- ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -- XI. From inflow to infall in hub-filament systems
- Misaligned disks induced by infall
- ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -- XV. Steady Accretion from Global Collapse to Core Feeding in Massive Hub-filament System SDC335
- The impact of the Hall effect during cloud core collapse:implications for circumstellar disk evolution
- A deeply embedded young protoplanetary disk around L1489 IRS observed by the submillimeter array
- The ALMA Survey of 70 Dark High-mass Clumps in Early Stages (ASHES). II: Molecular Outflows in the Extreme Early Stages of Protocluster Formation
- Gravitational instability in a planet-forming disk
- Structure and dynamics of the class I young stellar object L1489 IRS
- The core population and kinematics of a massive clump at early stages: an ALMA view
- A Keplerian disk with a four-arm spiral birthing an episodically accreting high-mass protostar
- Dynamics of a Massive Binary at Birth
- FAUST III. Misaligned rotations of the envelope, outflow, and disks in the multiple protostellar system of VLA 16232417
- The JCMT BISTRO Survey: A Spiral Magnetic Field in a Hub-filament Structure, Monoceros R2
- A massive Keplerian protostellar disk with flyby-induced spirals in the Central Molecular Zone
- FERIA: Flat Envelope Model with Rotation and Infall under Angular Momentum Conservation
- Origin and Evolution of Angular Momentum of Class II Disks
- A probable Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star
- Spectral survey of a Hot core with an Eruptive Accretion in S255IR NIRS3 (SHEA): The discovery of class I and class II millimeter methanol maser transitions
- MeerKAT and ALMA view of the AGAL045.804-0.356 clump