ESO: VLT Sees Signs of Planet Birth

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bystander
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ESO: VLT Sees Signs of Planet Birth

Post by bystander » Thu May 21, 2020 6:07 pm

Very Large Telescope Sees Signs of Planet Birth
European Southern Observatory | VLT | SPHERE | 2020 May 20

The Twist Marks the Spot

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
AB Aurigae System ~ Credit: ESO/VLT/SPHERE
Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed the telltale signs of a star system being born. Around the young star AB Aurigae lies a dense disc of dust and gas in which astronomers have spotted a prominent spiral structure with a ‘twist’ that marks the site where a planet may be forming. The observed feature could be the first direct evidence of a baby planet coming into existence. ...

The new images feature a stunning spiral of dust and gas around AB Aurigae, located 520 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Auriga (The Charioteer). Spirals of this type signal the presence of baby planets, which ‘kick’ the gas, creating “disturbances in the disc in the form of a wave, somewhat like the wake of a boat on a lake,” explains Emmanuel Di Folco ... As the planet rotates around the central star, this wave gets shaped into a spiral arm. The very bright yellow ‘twist’ region close to the centre of the new AB Aurigae image, which lies at about the same distance from the star as Neptune from the Sun, is one of these disturbance sites where the team believe a planet is being made.

Observations of the AB Aurigae system made a few years ago with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, provided the first hints of ongoing planet formation around the star. In the ALMA images, scientists spotted two spiral arms of gas close to the star, lying within the disc’s inner region. Then, in 2019 and early 2020, Boccaletti and a team of astronomers from France, Taiwan, the US and Belgium set out to capture a clearer picture by turning the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile toward the star. The SPHERE images are the deepest images of the AB Aurigae system obtained to date. ...

Possible Evidence of Ongoing Planet Formation in AB Aurigae?
A Showcase of the SPHERE/ALMA Synergy
~ A. Boccaletti et al
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Re: ESO: VLT Sees Signs of Planet Birth

Post by neufer » Thu May 21, 2020 7:21 pm

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Art Neuendorffer

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