The scientific community has learned that the disk gas forming around the planet was first discovered around AS209, a young star in the constellation of Ophiuchus, about 395 light-years from Earth.
According to the U.S. National Radio Astronomy and Observatory (NRAO), a research team led by Dr. S. Bai Jae Han, Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Florida, used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), a large radio telescope located in the desert of northern Chile, to create a peripheral disk. The results of the “planetary disk” were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
▲ AS209, a young star in Ophiuchi. |
The disk around the planet is a collection of gas, dust and planetary debris around the newly formed small planet.
This study was expected to expand understanding of the formation of the Galilean satellites, including Europa, which are estimated to have formed in a disk around Jupiter about 4.5 billion years ago, but actual cases are extremely rare.
Previously, the formation of the Moon was confirmed only in the disk around the planet PDS 70 c, located at a distance of about 370 light years.
▲ Image of the Moon forming on the disk around Planet C in PDS 70. |
AS209, which contains seven rings of a proposed planetary formation, attracted attention about five years ago and led to the discovery of a disk around a small Jupiter-mass planet where light was trapped in gas-filled space as it traveled around the star.
This planet is particularly notable in that it is a baby planet that is estimated to have formed only about 1.6 million years ago and does not fit the modern theory of planet formation at more than 200 astronomical units (AU). km of stars, if the planet formation estimate is correct, it would be one of the smallest exoplanets identified so far, with around 5,000 planets.
The planet was selected as an observation proposal submitted by Professor Pye’s research team to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Quality is expected.
Professor Bay said: “The best way to study the process of planet formation is to observe the planet at the stage of its formation.”
Scientific team [email protected]