Science Highlights

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Protoplanetary disks, that are rotating disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars, become the birthplace of planets. However, details of the formation process of these disks remain unclear. In the classical model of star formation, disks form within a rotating star-forming core threaded with aligned magnetic fields. In this scenario, disks are expected to exhibit minimal changes in orientation over time. With our recent observations using the ACA 7-m array, we have discovered highly-misaligned, three molecular outflows around the single protostar IRAS 15398–3359. The blue/red color in the figure show the observed outflows moving toward/away from us, which were identified through the Doppler shift of the molecular line emission. Molecular outflows are launched perpendicular to the disk’s surface. Hence, these misaligned outflows suggest that the disk orientation significantly changes over time. This finding points to a more complicated process of disk formation, likely involving turbulence or complex magnetic field structures. The observations reveal that the journey from interstellar gas and dust to planetary systems is far more dynamic and chaotic than previously thought.