Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

Why Most Stars Are Not Alone: New Research Reveals How Binary Star Systems Are Born

When we look up at the night sky, it’s natural to imagine stars as lonely objects drifting quietly through space—much like our own Sun. But in reality, our Sun is actually a bit unusual. A large number of stars in the universe are not alone at all. In fact, about half of Sun-like stars exist in pairs or even larger groups, bound together by gravity.

These systems, known as binary or multiple star systems, have puzzled astronomers for decades. Why do so many stars form with companions? And how exactly do these stellar partnerships come into existence?

A new study led by Ryan Sponzilli from the University of Illinois offers compelling evidence that may finally answer this long-standing question. The research, currently available on arXiv, suggests that a process called disk fragmentation is likely the dominant way close binary stars are formed.

🌌 Two Competing Theories of Star Formation

To understand the significance of this discovery, we first need to look at the two main theories scientists have proposed for how binary star systems form.

1. Disk Fragmentation: A Shared Origin

In the disk fragmentation model, a single newborn star is surrounded by a massive, spinning disk of gas and dust. Over time, this disk becomes unstable and begins to break apart. These fragments can collapse under their own gravity and form additional stars nearby.

Because all the stars in this scenario form from the same rotating disk, they inherit a shared motion. This means their spins and orientations should be aligned in a predictable way.

In simple terms: they are born together and spin together.

2. Turbulent Fragmentation: A Chaotic Beginning

The second theory is called turbulent fragmentation. In this case, the original cloud of gas breaks apart due to turbulence—random, chaotic motions within the cloud. These fragments form stars independently, often far apart from each other.

Over thousands of years, gravitational forces slowly pull these stars closer together until they form a binary system.

But here’s the key difference: because these stars formed separately, their spins and orbits should be randomly oriented.

In simple terms: they are born separately and only later come together.

🔭 How Scientists Tested These Ideas

Testing these theories is not easy. Young stars, also called protostars, are surrounded by thick clouds of gas and dust that block direct observation of their rotation.

So how do scientists study something they can’t see?

The answer lies in powerful instruments like the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). This advanced telescope can detect faint signals from molecules like carbon monoxide in space.

Young stars often shoot out streams of gas—called outflows or jets—from their poles. These jets act like cosmic arrows, pointing in the direction of the star’s rotation axis.

By observing the direction of these jets, scientists can indirectly determine how the stars are spinning.

📊 The Study: 51 Young Star Systems

The research team examined 51 young binary star systems using ALMA data. They focused on the direction of gas outflows from these systems.

Here’s what they were looking for:

  • If the jets from both stars pointed in similar directions, it would support disk fragmentation.

  • If the jets pointed randomly, it would support turbulent fragmentation.

The results were striking.

The team detected 42 clear outflows across 38 systems. After running detailed statistical simulations, they found that about 94% of these outflows were aligned in a specific way—perpendicular to the plane between the two stars.

This alignment strongly supports the disk fragmentation model.

📌 Why This Matters

This finding is a big deal for several reasons.

1. Solving a Cosmic Mystery

For years, astronomers have debated how binary stars form. This study provides strong evidence that disk fragmentation is the dominant process, at least for close binary systems.

2. Understanding Stellar Motion

The way stars form affects how they move and interact. Knowing that many stars are born together with aligned spins helps scientists better understand the early dynamics of star systems.

3. Clues About Planet Formation

Perhaps most importantly, this discovery has implications for planets.

Planets form from the same disks of gas and dust that surround young stars. If binary stars form through disk fragmentation, it means their planetary systems may also be more organized and predictable than previously thought.

This could influence everything from planetary orbits to the potential habitability of worlds in binary systems.

🤔 Could the Other Theory Still Be Right?

Science is rarely black and white. Some researchers might argue that even if stars form separately, their spins could gradually align over time as they move closer together.

However, the study suggests this is highly unlikely. The strong and consistent alignment seen in the data points toward stars forming together from the start, rather than aligning later.

🚀 Looking Ahead

While this research provides strong evidence for disk fragmentation, it is not the final word. Future observations with even more advanced instruments will help refine these findings and explore other types of star systems.

But for now, one thing is clear: stars are far more social than we once thought.

🌟 Final Thoughts

Our Sun may feel special to us—and it is—but in the grand scheme of the universe, it’s actually a bit of an outsider. Many stars are born not alone, but alongside companions, sharing their origin and motion from the very beginning.

This new research brings us one step closer to understanding the complex and beautiful processes that shape our universe. And as we learn more about how stars form, we also uncover clues about how planets—and possibly life—come into existence.

In the end, the story of the stars is not just about light in the sky. It’s about connection, motion, and the hidden patterns that govern the cosmos.

Reference: Ryan Sponzilli et al, Protostellar Outflows Shed Light on the Dominant Close Companion Star Formation Pathways, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.01347

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more