How an astronomer accidentally found a star stuck in a cosmic waltz


While sitting in his office, Naman Bajaj stared at the precious data that led to the final installment of his trio of published papers, each of which incrementally answers a very loaded question: Why do some planet-forming disks creep onto their own stars? The three studies were robust, interesting — and most importantly, finished. But before closing the door on these last few data points, delivered by the famous James Webb Space Telescope, Bajaj decided to wring them for all they were worth. He certainly didn’t expect, however, to open yet another door.

“My advisor was gone for a conference or something for a month; I was just playing with the data and saying, ‘What more I can do? Is there anything more that this data can tell us?'” Bajaj, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, told Space.com.



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