![]() ![]() "We're seeing that this material is not just floating around freely, it's stable and has a preference where it wants to be located based on physics and the objects involved," Long explains. Long points to positions in space known as Lagrange points, where two bodies in motion - such as a star and orbiting planet - produce enhanced regions of attraction around them where matter may accumulate. ![]() "That degree of separation doesn't just happen - it's important mathematically." "This arc and clump are separated by about 120 degrees," she says. Long examined the scenario with computer models to figure out what was causing the buildup of material and learned that their size and locations matched the model for the presence of a planet. The material took the shape of a small clump and a larger arc, and were separated by 120 degrees. Long dove into new high-resolution ALMA data on LkCa 15, obtained primarily in 2019, and discovered two faint features that had not previously been detected.Ībout 42 astronomical units out from the star - or 42 times the distance Earth is from the Sun - Long discovered a dusty ring with two separate and bright bunches of material orbiting within it. Scientists previously reported evidence for planet formation in the disk using observations with the ALMA Observatory. Located 518 light years away, the disk sits in the Taurus constellation on the sky. "We need new techniques to look at and support that a planet is there."įor her study, Long decided to re-examine a protoplanetary disk known as LkCa 15. "In the past few years, we've seen many structures pop up on disks that we think are caused by a planet's presence, but it could be caused by something else, too" Long says. Scientists instead must hunt for clues to infer a planet is developing beneath the dust. ![]() "The planets are always too faint for us to see because they're embedded in thick layers of gas and dust." "Directly detecting young planets is very challenging and has so far only been successful in one or two cases," says Feng Long, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics who led the new study. The results are described today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Now, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have developed a new way to detect these elusive newborn planets - and with it, "smoking gun" evidence of a small Neptune or Saturn-like planet lurking in a disk. ![]()
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