Although the universe has hundreds of protoplanetary disks, which are belts of gas and dust surrounding newly formed young stars, it has been challenging to observe actual planetary birth and evolution in these environments. Currently, astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have developed a new method to find these elusive newborn planets, along with “smoking gun” evidence of a small Neptune- or Saturn-like planet hidden in a disk. The Astrophysical Journal Letters published a description of the findings today.
According to Feng Long, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Astrophysics and project leader, “finding young planets directly is very difficult and has only been effective in one or two situations so far.” Because they are enveloped by a significant amount of gas and dust, the planets are always too faint to be seen. Instead, they must look for signs that a planet is forming beneath the dust.
Long notes that in recent years, “many structures have appeared in disks that we think are due to the existence of a planet, but it could also be due to something else. We need new methods to investigate and provide evidence that a planet exists.” .” Long decided to revisit the protoplanetary disk LkCa 15 for her research. The disk is located in the constellation Taurus, 518 light-years away. Previous research using images from the ALMA observatory showed that a planet was forming in the disk.
I spent a long time digging through fresh high-resolution ALMA data on LkCa 15, mostly from 2019, and found two faint features that weren’t there before. It found a dust ring with two distinct, glowing clumps of material orbiting it at a distance of about 42 AU from the star, which is 42 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. The material was split 120 degrees and looked like a small cluster and a larger arc.
He had long used computer simulations to analyze the situation and determine what was accumulating the material. He found that the sizes and locations of the objects were consistent with the presence of a planet. He explains, “This arc and the cluster are separated by about 120 degrees.” This degree of disparity is significant mathematically; it doesn’t just happen.
The long points point to places in space known as Lagrange points, where two moving bodies, such as an orbiting planet and a star, form stronger zones of attraction where matter can gather. According to physics and related things, Long says, “We see that this material just doesn’t float freely, it’s stable and has a preference for where it wants to be.” In this case, the Lagrange points L4 and L5 are where Long found the arc and clump of material. A small planet hidden between them at an angle of 60 degrees is what creates the dust accumulation between the L4 and L5 sites.
The findings suggest the planet is between one and three million years old and as large as Neptune or Saturn. (As for young-age planets.) Due to technological limitations, it may not be possible to directly image the small, young planet anytime soon, but according to Long, further ALMA studies of LkCa 15 may offer more evidence. supporting her planetary discovery. She also expects astronomers to use her new method for finding planets in the future, which relies on material that preferentially collects around Lagrange points. I sincerely hope that this approach can be widely used in the future, he adds. The only limitation is that very deep data is required due to weak signal.
Read Now :Shocking : Raju Srivastava passed away
