Giant gas river tilts planet-forming disk around GW Orionis
Astronomers using ALMA found a massive streamer of gas feeding the three-ring protoplanetary disk around the young triple-star GW Orionis in Orion, tipping the outer ring and potentially explaining why some exoplanets have highly misaligned orbits. The streamer spans about 0.2 light-years and transfers angular momentum to the disk, reshaping how planets form in this system. While this could illuminate a mechanism for misaligned planets, researchers caution it’s based on one disk and plan broader surveys to see how common such streamers are.