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A group of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) achieved first detection of gas in a circumplanetary diskwhich, together with its location, suggested the existence of
A group of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) achieved first detection of gas in a circumplanetary diskwhich, together with its location, suggested the existence of the youngest exoplanet that humanity has yet discovered.
Before we get into the details, circumplanetary disks are accretions of gas, dust, and debris around young planets. Analysis of such disks can shed light on the formation of our own solar system and even such things as Jupiter’s Galilean moons, which scientists believe formed from a circumplanetary disk 4.5 billion years ago.
The young exoplanet orbits the star AS 209, located in our Milky Way galaxy 395 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.. Astronomers observed a patch of light emitted from the center of the empty space in the gas surrounding the star, leading to the detection of a circumplanetary disk surrounding what points to a potential planet of similar mass to Jupiter.
Astronomers tracked both the distance of the planet from its star and the age of the star itself. In the first, they calculated a distance of 200 AU, which would be 200 times the distance between Earth and the Sun (149,597,870 kilometers multiplied by 200), while in the second, it was estimated that AS 209 is only 1.6 million years old.. If these data are true, we would be facing the youngest exoplanet discovered so far.
For now, it is reasonable to take the data published by astronomers with tweezers, because there are many things to check. Further investigation is required to confirm the findings and the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to contribute to the same with the existence of an exoplanet as the existence of AS 209 is more than confirmed.
An interesting fact is that the discovery around AS 209 is the third confirmed detection of a circumplanetary disk. Astronomers have long suspected its presence, but were unable to confirm its existence until 2019 using ALMA, the 66-Radio Telescope Astronomical Interferometer located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
Cover image: Pixabay.
Source: Muy Computer
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