They photograph for the first time the birth of a planet

Before, the birth of a new planet was captured indirectly. The glow of nearby stars is usually so powerful that no telescope can detect them.

But it is already a problem of the past. "After more than a decade of tremendous effort to build this high-tech machine, SPHERE allows us to reap new fruit with the discovery of the planets," said Thomas Henning, director of the Institute. Max Planck of Astronomy, on the Southern European site. Observatory

SPHERE is the acronym for "High Contrast Spectrophotometric Exoplanet Finder", a device that blocks the central region of stars to reduce the amount of light emitted and to see in detail the objects that [19659003] "Have you ever tried to block sunlight with your thumb?" If you did, then you probably noticed a blinding light around your shaded finger. ", explains the European Southern Observatory

It is for this reason that a black dot is seen in the center of the photograph.

There, scientists have blocked the light of the 39, star in question, known as PDS 70, a dwarf star with less than ten million years.

Around, you can see the disc of gas and dust that l & # 39; surrounds, and a yellow dot to the right of the black dot, which corresponds to the new planet which received the name of PDS 70b.

The researchers also found that the planet is as far from its star as Uranus of Sun in our solar system, at 3,000 million kilometers

Moreover, a year on this planet corresponds to 118 Earth years.That is, it's the time it takes PDS 70b to bypbad PDS 70 .

It is believed that the outside temperature eure of this planet exceeds 1 . 000 degrees centigrade much more than any other planets in our solar system

How are the planets born?

The most accepted theory is that planets are created from the material that remains when a star is formed. Composed primarily of gas and dust, the new planet revolves around the star on a wide disk.

Over time, pieces of these remains collide and, the bigger they become, the more gravity they have and the more debris they attract. , including other planets being formed.

Scientists only have our own solar system as an example to build this theory. Therefore, being able to visualize planets such as PDS 70b in the early stages of its development will help astronomers better understand this process.