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Scientists have studied an extremely young exoplanet at the stage of its formation. The gas giant PDS 70B is not yet in its final orbit and should continue to attract new subjects, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in the Heidelberg report .
The planet thus offers a unique opportunity to test planetary formation models. Because up to now, astronomers have discovered according to MPIA about 3800 planets outside our solar system – with different sizes, masses and distances to their suns. But researchers do not know exactly how planets are formed.
True, they have developed theories and models of possible emergent scenarios. However, until now, it has hardly been possible to directly study planets during their formation and compare their properties with model calculations. This is precisely what the astronomers of the MPIA and the Sphere Instrument consortium of the Very Large Telescope of the Southern European Observatory (ESO) in Chile have now achieved
The Planet PDS 70 b is about 370 light-years from Earth. It revolves around the young star PDS 70, which surrounds a disk of gas and dust, wider than our solar system and remained after the formation of the star.
Around the sun in 120 years
However, the disc has a big gap. The researchers suggest that this occurs when a young giant planet picks up disc material in its orbit around the parental star. "We chose a star for our study with the PDS 70, where we already suspected that a young planet might be moving there," said Miriam Keppler of MPIA.
And indeed: An infrared image of the disc shows the young exoplanet PDS 70b as a light signal. The recording could only succeed because the emission of the central star was hidden.
The analysis showed that the PDS 70b is a giant gas planet of the multiple mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. It's also hotter than any other planet in our solar system. It is 22 times farther from the sun than the earth from our sun and takes 120 years to encircle it.
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