Astronomers Discover Edge-on Protoplanetary Disk in Quadruple Star System

Top left: A normal ground-based infrared image (from the 2MASS survey) shows a wide binary system. Top right: Gemini adaptive optics partially corrects for blurring by the Earth's atmosphere, resolving one star in the wide binary into a close pair of stars. Bottom left: A longer exposure with Gemini adaptive optics reveals a fainter extended object near the upper close pair. Bottom right: A close-up of this faint object shows it to be an edge-on protoplanetary disk.