In search of extrasolar planets: here are the breathtaking images of two newborn planets in the stellar system Pds 70, 370 light years away from us.
A group of astronomers of the University of Arizona has captured breathtaking images of two newborn planets, or “protopynets“, in the Stellar System PDS 70, located 370 years light years after our sun system, in the Centaur constellation. These unprecedented images, obtained thanks to the sophisticated Magellan Adaptive Optics Xtreme (Magao-X) tool combined with the 6.5 meter Magellan telescope of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, offer a look on How the planets and their lune systems are formed.
A young star system. The PDS 70 star, around which the two protopianettes orbit, is a star of about 5 million yearsa little girl if compared with i 4.6 billion years of our Solar System. Astronomes believe that, billions of years ago, our solar system resembled a miniature version of the PDS 70 system. The captured images reveal that the protopianets, called PDS 70 Be Pds 70 C, are still surrounded by rings of gas and dustresidues of the protoplanetary disc from which they are forming.
These rings could be the Place of birth of Future Luneor “exolunes”, offering scientists the opportunity to study the formation of these celestial bodies outside our solar system. “For the first time we can see dust rings surrounding the protopianettes, made visible from the brilliant light of the reflected stars,” explained Jialin Li of the University of Arizona.
Turbulent growth. PDS 70 Be Pds 70 C are already more massive than Jupiter, but their 5 million years of age indicates that they are still growing by collecting matter by the cloud of gas and dust, or “protoplanetary disc”, which surrounds their mother star. “The massive planets act as broom or vacuum cleaner,” Punctualizes Laird Close, professor of astronomy at the Steward Observatory. “Basically they absorb or disperse dust and free the large space that we observe on this disk of gases and dust that surrounds the star”.
The research group also observed for the first time changes in the brightness of the protopianetsindicating that they are going through a turbulent growth process. In particular, Pds 70 B saw its brightness decrease to a fifth of its original value in three years, while PDS 70 C doubled its brightness. This suggests that The two planets are “feeding” the dust and gases that surround them differentlywith someone who seems to have slowed down his growth and other that accelerated it.
At the moment, the team cannot explain what changed the eating habits of these exopianets.
Cutting -edge technology. The sharpness of the images is a remarkable result for Magao-X, a Adaptive optic system that corrects atmospheric turbulenceeliminating the “glitter” of the stars. This technology allows to obtain images comparable to those of an optical spatial telescope, revealing incredible details of the protopianets and their dust discs. Given the success recorded so far, it is certain that astronomers will continue to use magao-x to look for other protopynetes around young stars, with the hope of discovering other systems such as PDS 70 and revealing the mysteries of the birth of the planets and their moons.
