Put a Ring on it
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.
Nearly 400 light-years from Earth, two new planets are forming inside this giant circumstellar disc.
Inside that, a smaller disc is circling one of the planets.
ESO/L. Calçada, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.
Astronomers have long hypothesized that these circumplanetary discs exist, but it wasn’t until recent years that they actually spotted one in the universe.
This is the image the researchers captured.
ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
But it wasn’t until now that further analysis and sharper visuals showed that the planet did, in fact, have a ring around it — the type of disc that forms moons.
ESO/L. Calçada, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.
These spinning discs of dust and gas are thought to form new orbiting bodies, like moons. Forming spheres suck up resources as they pack more densely and orbit around their home planet.
ESO/L. Calçada, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.
The discovery is rare and will help researchers better understand how planets and moons form around a young star.
“PDS 70b and PDS 70c, which form a system reminiscent of the Jupiter-Saturn pair, are the only two exoplanets detected so far that are still in the process of being formed.”
Miriam Keppler, study co-author and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
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