High-mass stars in the Milky Way often exist in systems of two or more stars, but how this multiplicity arises is not clear and so far there have been no unequivocal observations of protostellar systems that could solve the issue. Now, systems of five, four and three stars, and several binaries, have been resolved in a star-forming region, and point to core fragmentation as the likely origin of multiplicity.
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This is a summary of: Li, S. et al. Observations of high-order multiplicity in a high-mass stellar protocluster. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02181-9 (2024).
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Multi-star systems observed in high-mass star forming region. Nat Astron 8, 415–416 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02187-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02187-3
