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A text by Alain Labelle
The nascent planet traces a path through the disk of gas and dust that surrounds the very young star PDS 70.
Early data suggest that this planet, named PDS 70b, has a cloudy atmosphere.
It is an international team of astronomers led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute. Heidelberg astronomy in Germany
SPHERE also allowed the team to measure the brightness of the planet at different wavelengths, which led to the determination of properties of its atmosphere
The following video explains in English the following observation:
Much bigger than Jupiter
The planet appears as a bright spot to the right of the central and dark area of the image. It is about 3 billion kilometers from the central star, a distance equal to that separating Uranus from the Sun.
The data collected shows that PDS 70b is a gaseous giant with a mbad greater than several times the mbad of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system
The surface temperature of the planet is around 1000 degrees Celsius, which is much higher than any planet in our solar system.
The image explained
The dark region in the center of the image shows the use of a coronograph, a type of telescope that blocks the blinding light in from a star to study its crown
This astronomical telescope enabled astronomers to detect the luminous disk surrounding the star and its planetary companion.
Without this "mask", the the faint light from the planet would be drowned in the intense brightness of PDS 70.
These discs encircling the young stars are true planetary cocoons.
"To date however, only a handful of observations led to the detection of protoplanets within them, "says Miriam Keppler, the astronomer who leads the team behind the discovery of the PDS 70b protoplanet
So far, most of these candidate planets may have been artifacts of the disc.
A Planet Studied in Detail
Astronomers have been observing since few months planetary young partner of PDS 70 in detail. Already, they have managed to capture this spectacular image and have obtained a spectrum of the planet. The badysis of this spectrum leads to think that its atmosphere is cloudy.
The planet has carved a transition disc pierced in its center. These internal holes have been known for decades and attributed to the interactions between disk and planet. It is now possible to observe the planet.
"The results of Keppler open a new window of understanding on the early stages of global evolution," says André Müller, head of a second team to study the young planet at the Max Plank Institute
It was necessary for us to observe a planet in the disc of a young star to really understand the processes at the origin of the planetary formation.
] A better understanding of the physical and atmospheric properties of the planet allows astrophysicists to test the theoretical models of planet formation
The details of this work are the subject of two studies published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics .
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