Disc gas captured around small Jupiter

The scientific community learned that disk gas forming around the planet was first detected in AS209, a young star in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 395 light-years from Earth.

According to the US National Radio Astronomy and Observatory (NRAO), the research team led by Dr. Bai Jay Han, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Florida, used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), a large radio telescope located in the desert of northern Chile, to create a terminal disk. The results of the “planetary disk” were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The disk surrounding a planet is a collection of gas, dust, and planetary debris around a small planet that has just formed.

This study was expected to expand understanding of the formation process of the Galilean moons, including Europa, which are estimated to have formed in the disk around Jupiter about 4.5 billion years ago, but actual cases are extremely rare.

Previously, the formation of the Moon was confirmed only in the disk surrounding the planet PDS 70 c, about 370 light-years away.

▲ Image of the moon forming in the disk surrounding Planet C in PDS 70.

AS209, which contains seven rings of supposed planetary formation, caught the eye about five years ago and led to the discovery of a disk around a small planet the mass of Jupiter where light was captured in gas-filled space along the way. about the star.

This planet is particularly notable because it is a “baby” planet that is estimated to have formed only about 1.6 million years ago and does not match the current theory of planet formation at a distance of more than 200 astronomical units (AU). , about 30 billion kilometers from stars, if planet formation estimates are correct, it would be one of the smallest exoplanets identified so far, with about 5,000 planets.

The planet was selected as an observation proposal submitted by Professor Pai’s research team to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The quality is expected.

“The best way to study the process of planet formation is to observe the planet in its formation stage,” said Professor Bay.

Scientific Team [email protected]