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Paris (AFP)
For the first time, scientists have clearly identified a ring of gas and dust circling a planet outside our solar system – a discovery that could help reveal how planets and moons form, a study found on Thursday.
The disc surrounds an exoplanet dubbed PDS 70c, one of two gas giants of Jupiter-like size and mass that orbit the star PDS 70, nearly 400 light years from our solar system.
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory discovered the PDS 70c in 2019 using their very large telescope.
These observations combined with high-resolution images from the ALMA telescope, also in Chile, allowed them to conclude that the disk of the PDS 70c contains material that will allow moons to form around the planet, according to the study published in The Astrophysical. Journal Letters.
Astronomers have known since 2006 that the star PDS 70 is surrounded by a very large ring of matter, but the limitations of the observation equipment only allowed them to guess the presence of a planet between the star and the ring.
“Our ALMA observations were obtained at such exquisite resolution that we were able to clearly identify that the disk is associated with the planet, and we are able to limit its size for the first time,” said the lead author of the study, Myriam Benisty, in a press release.
The two planets discovered in the system are of major interest to researchers because they belong to a young star system.
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The star PDS 70 is 5.4 million years old – a spring chicken compared to our Sun, which has been around for 4.6 billion years.
Miriam Keppler, researcher at the Max Planck Institute and co-author of the study, discovered the PDS 70b in 2018.
“More than 4,000 exoplanets” – planets outside of our solar system – “have been found so far, but all have been detected in mature systems,” she said in the press release.
“PDS 70b and PDS 70c, which form a system reminiscent of the Jupiter-Saturn pair, are the only two exoplanets detected so far that are still forming.”
The material surrounding the PDS 70c is enough to form our moon three times. Jupiter, which is a much older planet, has four moons and dozens of smaller satellites.
© 2021 AFP
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