The first ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk has been made by scientists using the ALMA. The presence of a very young exoplanet is suggested by the detection. The results are published in a journal.
A circumplanetary disk is a collection of gas, dust, and debris. The growth of young, giant planets is controlled by these disks. Scientists believe that Jupiter's Galilean moons formed in a circumplanetary disk around 4.5 billion years ago.
While studying AS 209, a young star located 395 light-years from Earth, scientists observed a blob of emitted light in the middle of an empty gap in the gas surrounding the star. The circumplanetary disk was found around a Jupiter-mass planet.
The system is being watched closely because of its distance from the star and its age. Currently accepted theories of planet formation are challenged by the fact that the exoplanet is more than 20 billion miles away. If the host star's age is true, this exoplanet could be one of the youngest ever found. Scientists hope that upcoming observations will confirm the existence of the planet.
It's best to observe planets while they're forming. The lead author of the paper said that we are living in a very exciting time when this happens thanks to powerful telescopes.
The existence of circumplanetary disks around exoplanets has been suspected by scientists for years. The first-ever detection of a circumplanetary, moon-forming disk was made by ALMA scientists in 2019. New observations of gas in a circumplanetary disk may shed light on the development of planetary atmospheres and the processes by which moons are formed
More information: Jaehan Bae et al, Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS): A Circumplanetary Disk Candidate in Molecular Line Emission in the AS 209 Disk, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2022). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac7fa3 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Letters
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