Triple spiral arms of a triple protostar system imaged in molecular lines

Abstract

Most stars form in multiple star systems. For a better understanding of their formation processes, it is important to resolve the individual protostellar components and the surrounding envelope and disk material at the earliest possible formation epoch because the formation history can be lost in a few orbital timescales. Here we present the ALMA observational results of a young multiple protostellar system, IRAS 04239+2436, where three well-developed large spiral arms were detected in the shocked SO emission. Along the most conspicuous arm, the accretion streamer was also detected in the SO$_2$ emission. The observational results are complemented by numerical magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, where those large arms only appear in magnetically weakened clouds. The numerical simulations also suggest that the large triple spiral arms are the result of gravitational interactions between compact triple protostars and the turbulent infalling envelope.