Astronomers have captured the first image of a new planet being formed

[Ulquiorra]

ASTRONOMERS say they have captured the first confirmed image of a planet forming in the dust swirling around a young star.

Scientists said the planet appears as a bright spot in the snapshot taken using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Miriam Kepler of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany said hints of “baby planets” have been detected before, but astronomers were not sure whether those observations might simply be features in the swirling dust.
 

The stunning snapshot, considered the first robust detection of a young planet, was captured by the SPHERE instrument on the ESO’s’ Very Large Telescope and stands out clearly as a bright point to the right of the blackened centre of the image.

The photo was reportedly made possible thanks to the use of a filter, known as a coronagraph, which blocks the light from the central star and allows the detection of the much fainter disc and planetary companion, the ESO explained.

“These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them,” Ms Keppler said.

The emerging planet is located some three billion km from the central star — roughly equivalent to the distance between Uranus and the Sun. Data also suggests the planet’s atmosphere is cloudy and has a surface temperature of 1000C, making it much hotter than any planet in our own Solar System.

“After more than a decade of enormous efforts to build this hi-tech machine, now SPHERE enables us to reap the harvest with the discovery of baby planets!” Thomas Henning, director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy said.

In a paper to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, scientists describe the planet, located about three billion km from the star PDS 70, as a gas giant bigger than Jupiter.