First Images of a Confirmed Planet at the Moment of Its Birth Revealed
Scientists have spotted a cloud of what is more or less confirmed as a planet in the moment of its birth, some 370 light years away from Earth. It's the first conclusive image currently available of a planet in the middle of its formation and will go a long way towards teaching astronomers about other possible worlds outside of this one.
One of the high-resolution images of the baby planet now available was taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, with the light of the star blacked out in the center. At the right of this star, called PDS 70, there's the blob representing the planet being formed, which is estimated to be a few times more massive than Jupiter.
Surrounding this nascent planet and its star is a cloud of dust and gases called the protoplanetary disk, according to The Verge. Following current theories, it's the clouds of gas and dust like these that eventually coalesce into planets, moons and asteroids just like the one recently spotted by researchers working at the Max Planck Institute.
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"These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them," Miriam Keppler of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany said, as quoted by The Guardian.
While this planet has been labeled a newborn, it is actually 5.4 million years old — a very long time for humans but a brief span when it comes to the timescale for stars and galaxies.
It's a very unique discovery that scientists are now very excited about for a lot of different reasons. For one, this is the first notable example of a new planet that they can directly take an image of, according to Keppler.
"In this case we now have a direct image [of the planet] in its 'birthplace,' which is the circumstellar disc," she explained, adding that this is a good chance for scientists to confirm existing theories on how planets form.
