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How is a planet at the moment of "birth"? An international team of astronomers has used the telescope structure of the Observatory of Southern Europe (ESO) to produce one of the best images ever made of a new planet. at the beginning of life. In the picture, the new star navigates on the disk of gas and dust created by the star to which it will gravitate. The image was released by ESO on Monday.
The new planet is the bright spot on the right. Already the dark point in the center is a 'mask'. used by astronomers to block the light of the new star
Photo: ESO / A. Müller et al. The new planet was named PDS 70b – and the non-glamorous name was given because of the star that it will orbit, the PDS 70. This, in turn, is a dwarf young star: means that It generates energy by melting the protons present in the nucleus of the hydrogen atoms. Our Sun is also considered a dwarf star.
The team of astronomers worked under the coordination of a group of the Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg (Germany).
The image of the planet was captured by an ESO telescope called Sphere, whose specialty is taking pictures of exoplanets – that is to say of planets outside our solar system. The Sphere Telescope is part of the VLT structure, which is today the largest optical telescope ensemble in the world. The VLT operates at Cerro Parbad, in the Atacama Desert (Chile).
The PDS-70 is the pale orange dot in the middle of the picture. The bright blue star in the corner is the Chi Centauri
The new planet, PDS 70b, is about 3 billion km from its star – a distance equivalent to that between Uranus and the Sun. By badyzing the brightness emitted by the planet at different wavelengths, scientists have also been able to conclude that the PDS 70b is a giant gas type – and sometimes bigger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The surface temperature of the PDS 70b is about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than any planet in the orbit of our Sun.
"These discs around the young stars are the nursery of the new planets, but so far there have been few sightings of the researcher Miriam Keppler, who led the team responsible for discovering the planet in formation in the orbit of the star PDS 70, detected evidence of the presence of new planets.
"Up to here, however, most" The planet "already observed could be of simple noises on the disc, "she said in a bulletin published by ESO (here).
Research around the new exoplanet is presented in two scientific articles (here and here in English ), which will be published in a journal specializing in astronomy.
The dark spot in the center of the image is due to the use of a coronograph – a kind of mask that blocks direct light Without this lock, it would be impossible to observe the new planet – because the starlight would dazzle him. PDS 70 is part of the Centaur constellation.
The map shows the location of the star PDS-70 and the new planet in the constellation Centaurus
"The results of the team led by Keppler open a window on the complex and as yet little understood process of planet formation, and on the early stages of this training," says astronomer André Müller, leader of a second team that will also investigate the young planet
Knowing the atmosphere and physical properties of the new planet, scientists will be able to test theoretical models that explain the formation of new worlds
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