Astronomers image the birth of a planet, verifies formation theory
We already have a pretty good idea of how planets come into existence, but the first one astronomers ever imaged in the midst of formation is LkCa 15 b. The Jupiter-like protoplanet (that’s the term used to describe a baby exoplanet), which orbits a young star 450 light-years away, was first caught on cam by Drs. Michael Ireland and Adam Kraus. At the time, however, the scientists weren’t sure if they were truly seeing a new planet being born. Now another group of researchers has taken a photo of the LkCa 15 b, and they strongly believe that they “successfully and unambiguously detected a forming planet.” Plus, they’ve verified a formation theory stating that protoplanets glow in the light of incredibly hot (17,500 Fahrenheit) hydrogen gas. The group’s paper, which has been published in Nature, combines data from separate studies conducted by two lead authors: University of Arizona graduate student Stephanie Sallum and her former schoolmate Kate Follette, who’s now doing postdoctoral research at Stanford University.
Via: The Washington Post
Source: Stanford, The University of Arizona
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