Overview
- The system IRAS 23077+6707 spans nearly 400 billion miles about 1,000 light-years away, making it the largest planet-forming disk seen in visible light.
- Hubble images show striking asymmetry with tall wisps and long filaments concentrated on one side, while the opposite edge appears sharply bounded.
- The disk contains an estimated 10–30 Jupiter masses of material, indicating potential to form multiple gas-giant planets.
- The central source remains obscured, leaving open whether it is a single massive star or a binary pair and whether planets are already forming.
- The peer-reviewed study, published December 23 in The Astrophysical Journal, sets up multiwavelength follow-up observations, including with JWST, to test explanations for the disk’s chaotic structure.