An international team of astronomers led by the University of Galway has discovered the likely location of the formation of a new planet. Its mass is several times that of Jupiter.
Source: ESO/C. Ginski et al
The discovery was made with the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (VLT ESO) in Chile. It managed to get a dative infrared image of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star 2MASS1612, also known as RIK 113. It is located 430 light-years away from Earth.
According to the scientists, they have already observed over a hundred protoplanetary disks during their study. This image, however, is special. It is rare to find a system in which the rings and spiral arms are arranged in such a way that they almost perfectly match the predictions of theoretical models about what a protoplanetary disk in which a planet forms should look like. It has a radius of 130 a.e. (19.5 billion kilometers). By comparison, Neptune’s orbit is 30 a.e. from Earth.
The resulting VLT image shows a bright ring, followed by a gap centered at about 50 a.u. Inside the gap in the disk, which resembles the edge of a terrestrial hurricane on Earth, a spiral arm system is visible. Although it looks tiny in the image, the interior of this system has a radius of 40 a.e. It could contain all the planets in our Solar System.
According to scientists, this “gap” indicates the presence of at least one emerging exoplanet whose mass is several times that of Jupiter. But there may be more. A detailed analysis of the data revealed not one, but two potential signals from planets around 2MASS1612. This is consistent with the results of observations previously made by the ALMA radio telescope complex.
Researchers have already reserved observing time on the James Webb telescope. They hope that its unprecedented sensitivity will allow them to get a direct image of the newborn exoplanet and its potential companions.
Previously, we told you how James Webb helped to reveal the secrets of the ultra-hot planet’s origin.
According to Phys.org
