First confirmed image of the birth of a planet

(CNN) – A planets finding instrument captured the first confirmed image of a newborn planet that is still forming in our galaxy.

To the right of the black circle in the center of the image, the round bright planet can be seen in the disk of gas and dust around the dwarf star PDS 70. Of course, the center does not show any. is not naturally that dark. Instead, the researchers used a coronagraph to block the shining light of the star in order to look at the disk and the planet.

He traces a path through the disc around the star, which is in the constellation Centaurus. The protoplanetary disk is the "factory planet" full of gas and dust around the young stars. The planet was found in a hole in this disc, which means that it is close to where it was born and continues to grow by accumulating disc materials.

The planet, named PDS 70b, was detected by an international team. The Very Large Telescope of the Southern Observatory in Chile and its instrument of research of the planet, called SPHERE. The instrument is considered one of the most powerful planets hunters existing.

The discovery by two research teams is detailed in two articles published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on Monday.

"These discs around the young stars are the birthplaces of the planets, but until now, only a handful of observations have detected clues of baby planets," said Miriam Keppler of the # Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, who led the team, in a statement. "The problem is that so far, most of these candidate planets could only be characteristics of the disc. "

André Müller, also with the Max Planck Institute and leader of the second team, said in a statement that" Keppler's results give us a new window on the early stages complex and bad understood from the planetary evolution We had to observe a planet in the disc of a young star to really understand the processes behind the formation of the planet. "

SPHERE was able to measure the brightness of the planet at different wavelengths, which allowed researchers to determine the properties of its atmosphere.

It's incredibly difficult because even though SPHERE used the coronagraph to block the star, he had to search the planet's signal in multiple ways.The researchers were able to determine that it is a giant gaseous planet and that its surface temperature is 1832 degrees Fahrenheit, it is at least a few times the mass of Jupiter, the largest gaseous giant of our solar system, and well above the highest temperature recorded on any planet of our solar system

They also deduced that it has a murky atmosphere 19659002] Although the planet is close to its star in the picture, it is at 1 864 113 576 miles. Is the same distance as Uranus from our sole It takes 120 years for the planet to orbit around the star, which corresponds to the predictions of astronomers that gaseous giants should form far enough from their stars.

Directly imaging the planet changes the game. In the future, researchers will be able to test models of planet formation and learn more about the history of the formation of early planetary systems, such as our own solar system

. A decade of tremendous effort to build technology machine, now SPHERE allows us to reap the harvest with the discovery of baby planets! "Thomas Henning, director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy & Astronomy Chief of Teams, said in a statement

The-CNN-Wire
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