Astronomers have potentially captured a planet in the process of forming, marking a significant observation never seen before. Planets emerge from the remnants of gas and dust following a star’s ignition, forming a disk around the host star. While astronomers have previously detected these protoplanetary disks around various stars, witnessing the actual formation of a planet within, resulting in spiral-like structures, is a novel occurrence.
Using a different instrument and wavelength, researchers identified an object within a binary star system located approximately 440 light years away, believed to be about twice the size of Jupiter. The object orbits its host star at a distance similar to Neptune’s distance from the sun.
Describing the discovery in a metaphorical manner, lead author Francesco Maio likened the planet’s presence in the disk to a spoon stirring a cappuccino, creating spirals in the process. This marks the first time scientists have potentially identified the source of these spiral structures in protoplanetary disks.
The discovery was made utilizing the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and its Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. The disk itself was initially imaged by another team of astronomers using the SPHERE instrument, which can block out starlight to detect surrounding objects. Despite previous attempts not showing any orbiting objects, this recent observation is considered promising in shedding light on planet formation processes.
Notably, the star system where the potential planet was found, HD 135344AB, consists of two stars, with the other star, HD 135344A, lacking a protoplanetary disk, presenting an intriguing scientific puzzle. Further investigations and observations in different wavelengths will be crucial to confirming the presence of a protoplanet within the gas and dust disk studied.