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Currently, we have received images of all kinds coming from space, more and more surprising, but the birth of a planet, up to now, was something that n & # 39; He had not been able to follow and capture clearly.
The international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy managed to photograph for the first time this "newborn".
This is an extremely young exoplanet in a state of formation. This gaseous giant called PDS 70B, with a mass equivalent to several Jupiter, has been detected in orbit around the star PDS 70 in a space of its protoplanetary disk. This means that the PDS 70b is still close to his place of birth and that it is likely that he is still accumulating material.
Observations of this type provide a unique opportunity to test planetary formation models and to learn more about history. at the beginning of planetary systems, including our own solar system.
The celestial body is located about 3,000 million kilometers from the star PDS 70, a distance equivalent to that between Uranus and the Sun, its surface is at a temperature near 1000 ° C, much higher than that of any planet in the solar system.
To obtain the image of this planetary formation process, astronomers used the SPHERE instrument, installed in the European Southern VLT telescope. Observatory (ESO), which is located in Chile, is one of the most powerful ones that exist.
How is the resulting image interpreted?
SPHE RE studies exoplanets and disks around nearby stars. Through the use of high-contrast images, it was possible to measure the brightness of the new celestial body at different wavelengths and thus deduce the properties of its atmosphere.
The black dot at the center of the image is the work of a coronagraph. instrument that serves to block the light of a bright celestial body and that corresponds to the dark region that is observed in the center. Without this mask, its dim light would be difficult to detect because its brightness is much lower. "These discs surrounding the young stars are where the planets were born, but until now very few observations have detected clues," says Miriam Keppler, researcher at the Department of Planetary Training and Stars from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy.
This discovery led a second group of researchers – composed of many elements of the first – to follow in the last few months the first observations and thus to investigate the young planet. In more detail Thanks to the new data, which includes a spectrum of the planet, it has been discovered that its atmosphere is cloudy.
"The results bring us closer to the first stages, complex and still little known, of global evolution," says André Müller, head of the second research team. By determining the atmospheric and physical properties of the new celestial body, astronomers will be able to test theoretical models of planetary formation.
Thomas Henning, director of the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy and leader of both teams, said in a statement: 10 years of developing new powerful astronomical instruments such as SPHERE, this discovery shows us that we are finally able to find and study planets at the time of their formation. It is the fulfillment of a long cherished dream. "
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