Scientists have observed an enormous planet about nine times the mass of Jupiter at a remarkably early stage of formation, in a discovery that challenges the current understanding of planetary formation.
The researchers used the Hubble space telescope to look for the planet calledAB Aurigae b, a gas giant that is far from its host star. Our solar system's largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed of mostly hydrogen and helium, with swirling gases surrounding a smaller solid core.
Thayne Currie, lead author of the study, said that it is still very early on in the process.
It is embedded in a large disk of gas and dust that surrounds a star calledAB Aurigae. It is close to the light years from Earth. The star had a fleeting moment of fame when it appeared in a scene in Don't Look Up.
There are thousands of planets beyond our solar system. This one is large. A brown dwarf is a body intermediate between planet and star, but it is approaching the maximum size to be classified as a planet. Dust falls into it as it is heated by gas.
Planets in the process of formation have only been observed around one other star.
Scientists conclude that the peaks of Pluto are ice volcanoes.
Most known exoplanets have their stars within the distance that separates our sun and Neptune. This planet is three times as far away from the sun as Neptune is.
The birth appears to be different from the standard planetary formation model.
The conventional thinking is that most planets are formed by slow accretion of solid onto a rocky core, and that gas giants go through this phase before the solid core is massive enough to start accretion gas.
If the core of the young star reaches several times Earth's mass, the planets will begin to accumulate gas from the disk.
Guyon said that this discovery challenges our understanding of planet formation.
The researchers believe that the star is forming in a scenario in which the disk around the star cools and gravity causes it to fragment into one or more massive clumps that form into planets.
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Our sun is about 60 times brighter than the starAB Aurigae. It is about 2m years old, compared with 4.5 billion years for our middle-aged sun. The disk that gave rise to Earth and the other planets was surrounded by the sun.
Guyon said that new astronomy observations challenge our current theories and improve our understanding of the universe.
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