Astronomers have spotted gas clumps in a binary star system that could potentially support planet formation.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a research group headed by Anne Dutrey from the Laboratory of Astrophysics in France peered 460 light years away to observe the young binary star system called GG Tau-A.

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Like a wheel within a wheel, GG Tau-A has a massive outer disk circumscribing the whole system and an inner disk around the central star. Its presence has garnered wide attention among astronomers as it's losing material to its central star at a speed that should have destroyed it a long time ago.

The unexpected discovery of gas clumps between the two disks could help solve the mystery. It suggests that material is flowing from the outer disk to the inner disk, which sustains a lifeline between the two.

Computer simulations initially predicted the flow of materials in the region. But the imaging of the gas distribution validated the idea that material is moving between the two disks, permitting one to feed off the other.

Dutrey confirmed the activity has major consequences for planet formation.

Planets are formed from remaining material after star birth. Because it's a slow process, an enduring disk is needed for planet formation.

If it happens that the same feeding process observed at GG Tau-A also occurs in other binary star systems, a vast number of exoplanets could be found in the future.

While their first step to discovering exoplanets is to focus on single-host stars similar to the Sun, astronomers recently began paying attention to the possibility of planets orbiting stars of binary systems.

Experts say that almost half of the Sun-like stars were formed in binary systems. The new observation is a big step forward to understanding planet formation.

TagsExoplanets, Binary Star System, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), GG Tau-A, Stars, Sun