STScI: Dust Spirals around Young Stars May Betray Presence of Planets

[bystander]

Spirals in Dust around Young Stars May Betray Presence of Massive Planets
NASA GSFC | STScI HubbleSite | 2015 Oct 29

Protoplanetary Disk: Simulated Spiral Arm vs. Observational Data Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO, M. Benisty et al. (University of Grenoble), R. Dong (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and Z. Zhu (Princeton University)

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A team of astronomers is proposing that huge spiral patterns seen around some newborn stars, merely a few million years old (about one percent our sun’s age), may be evidence for the presence of giant unseen planets. This idea not only opens the door to a new method of planet detection, but also could offer a look into the early formative years of planet birth.

Though astronomers have cataloged thousands of planets orbiting other stars, the very earliest stages of planet formation are elusive because nascent planets are born and embedded inside vast, pancake-shaped disks of dust and gas encircling newborn stars, known as circumstellar disks.

The conclusion that planets may betray their presence by modifying circumstellar disks on large scales is based on detailed computer modeling of how gas-and-dust disks evolve around newborn stars, which was conducted by two NASA Hubble Fellows, Ruobing Dong of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Zhaohuan Zhu of Princeton University. ...

Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks II: Spiral Arms
Observed in Scattered Light Imaging Can be Induced by Planets - Ruobing Dong et al

• Astrophysical Journal Letters 809(1):L5 (2015 Aug 10) DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/809/1/L5
  arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1507.03596 > 13 Jul 2015 (v1), 31 Jul 2015 (v3)

The Structure of Spiral Shocks Excited by Planetary-mass Companions - Zhaohuan Zhu et al

• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1507.03599 > 13 Jul 2015 (v1), 30 Sep 2015 (v2)