The Youngest Exoplanet Ever Seen?

The most widely-accepted theory is that planetary systems begin as massive clouds of gas and dust. Young planets are formed around the star by the remaining matter in the system. Questions about how the Solar System formed over 4.5 billion years ago can be answered by studying disks in the earliest stages of planetary formation.

The ALMA was built to capture light in the far-IR part of the spectrum, which is what these disks need to be studied. A group of scientists observed a circumplanetary disk that appeared to have a Jupiter-mass planet embedded in it while studying a young star. This could be the youngest exoplanet ever found and its continued study could provide a treasure-trove of data.

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory were part of the team. The paper about their findings was published in a journal.

This system was observed by the research team as part of the Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales. The system has a disk that contains seven nested rings. The rings are thought to be associated with ongoing planet formation, where individual rings act as feed bands that eventually coalesce to form a planet.

The composition of these planets is thought to be determined by where they form in relation to their host star, with rocky planets located closer to the star while gas and ice giants are further out. Recent studies show that planets may form in one location and move to another. The exoplanet candidate's distance from its star and the parent star's age made it interesting to study.

In the case of the latter, the Jupiter-mass planet is at a distance of more than 200AUs. Jupiter is about 822 million km away from the Sun. There are currently accepted theories of planet formation. The parent star is thought to be just 1.6 million years old, making it the youngest ever observed.

Further evidence of planet formation is provided by these new results. Further study is necessary to confirm the existence of a Jupiter-mass planet there. The paper was written by a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida. He said to observe planets while they are forming. Thanks to telescopes, we are living in an exciting time.

Clouds of dust and gas make it hard to see debris rings around young stars and other objects. The cloud cover obscures light in the visible wavelength, making it hard to see objects within and beyond them. The ALMA and the JWST can see debris rings and objects in dense clouds because of the light they emit in theIR.

In particular, the instrument allows it to observe the universe in the near- and mid-infrared wavelength, which should provide a lot of insight into young star systems with circumplanetary disks. Further studies could show that there are circumplanetary disks. The first ever detection of a circumplanetary, moon-forming disk was made by ALMA in 2019.

Calculating how planetary atmospheres and systems of moons are formed could be improved by the observations of gas in a circumplanetary disk. Future studies of the gas giants will be informed by these findings.

The Astrophysical Journal Letters has a further reading.