ESO/RF van Capelleveen et al.
A team of astronomers, using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Chilean Atacama Desert, has discovered for the first time young exoplanet in a multi-ringed protoplanetary disk around the parent star.
The planet was named WISPIT 2b. It is located 430 light-years from Earth and has an estimated age of about 5 million years. It is a gas giant similar in size to Jupiter.
WISPIT 2b is located in the protoplanetary disk from gas and dust around the young star WISPIT 2 and collects matter near the parent star. The exoplanet is the first confirmed case of detecting a planet in a multi-ring protoplanetary disk containing many crevices and channels.
Images from the Very Large Telescope show, only the second exoplanet orbiting a young Sun-like star. This is the result of a study of WISPIT 2b and its protoplanetary disk, which is about 380 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, ideal for study of interactions between planets and disks and the further evolution of such systems.
“The discovery of this planet was a wonderful experience — we were incredibly lucky. WISPIT 2, a young version of our Sun, is in a poorly understood group of young stars, and we did not expect to find such an impressive system. This system is likely to become a benchmark for many years to come”, — says the study leader from Leiden University Richelle van Capelen.
The astronomers obtained an infrared image of WISPIT 2b, which was located in one of the gaps in the protoplanetary disk. As part of the study, scientists sought to find out which stars gas giants are the most common in wide orbits — young or old. This was made possible by the fact that after its formation, the young planet is still hot and glowing.
“We used these very short observations of many young stars — only a few minutes per object — to determine if we could see a small speck of light from a planet next to them. In the case of this star, however, we found instead a completely unexpected and exceptionally beautiful multi-ringed dust disk. When we first saw this multi-ring disk, we knew, we had to try to detect a planet in it, so we quickly requested additional observations“, — explains a lecturer at the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Galway Christian Ginski.
A separate group of researchers from the University of Arizona imaged WISPIT 2b in the optical range. These observations showed that WISPIT 2b continues to accumulate material.
“Getting images of these planets has proven to be extremely challenging, and it gives us a real chance to understand why many thousands of older exoplanet systems look so diverse and unlike our solar system. I think that many of our colleagues who study planet formation will be studying this system closely in the coming years”, — Christian Ginski emphasized.
The results of the study were published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Source: Space.com
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