according to NASA, astronomers announced they may have discovered the youngest one yetPrev TopicNext Topic

• eddessaknight

  

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  More than 5,000 planets exist beyond our solar system, according to NASA, and this week astronomers announced they may have discovered the youngest one yet.

  Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile report in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk, collections of dust and debris found around young planets.

  The finding, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which partners with the ALMA site, suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet – the term for a planet found outside our solar system.

  While studying AS 209 – a young star 395 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus,  which graces skies in the summer – astronomers observed "a blob of emitted light in the middle of an otherwise empty gap in the gas surrounding the star," according to an NRAO news article on the findings Tuesday.

  

  © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Sierra (U. Chile)AS 209 is a young star in the Ophiuchus constellation that scientists have now determined is host to what may be one of the youngest exoplanets ever.

  That led to the detection of the circumplanetary disk surrounding a potential Jupiter-mass planet, the radio astronomy observatory's article said.
• eddessaknight

  

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  Aug 20, 2022, 7:52 pm

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