MWC 480

Artist impression of the protoplanetary disc surrounding MWC 480.

MWC 480 is a young star about twice the mass of the Sun located 455 light-years away in the Taurus star-forming region.[1] The name refers to the Mount Wilson Catalog of B and A stars with bright hydrogen lines in their spectra.[2]

MWC 480 has X-ray emissions typical of a pre-main-sequence Herbig Ae/Be star but with an order of magnitude more photoelectric absorption.[3] It has a gas-dust envelope and is surrounded by a protoplanetary disc. Astronomers using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) have found that the protoplanetary disc surrounding MWC 480 contains large amounts of methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a complex carbon-based molecule.[4] Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) has also been detected in the disc.[5] No signs of planet formation have yet been detected.

References

Sky around the young star MWC 480


  1. ↑ K. L. Luhman; et al. "The Disk Population of the Taurus Star-Forming Region". arXiv:0911.5457Freely accessible.
  2. ↑ "Catalog of Resolved Circumstellar Disks". Circumstellardisks.org. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  3. ↑ "LOCATING THE ACCRETION FOOTPRINT ON A HERBIG Ae STAR: MWC 480". IOP.org. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  4. ↑ "Complex Organic Molecules Discovered in Infant Star System". Eso.org. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  5. ↑ "Complex Organic Molecules Discovered Around Star MWC 480". Science 2.0. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
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