A team of astronomers has captured the clearest images of baby planets forming around a distant star. These images show bright rings of dust, which could become moons in the not-so-distant future.
The researchers used an advanced adaptive optics system, Magellan Adaptive Optics Xtreme (MagAO-X), to study two protoplanets orbiting PDS 70, a star that’s about five million years old. This star lies about 370 light-years away in the Centaurus constellation, offering a unique glimpse into how planets evolve.
Led by the University of Arizona, this research sheds light on how young planets can be surrounded by thick dust rings. Over millions of years, these dust rings may collapse to form new moons, similar to how moons around Jupiter and Saturn formed in our solar system.
PDS 70 is a valuable object for study because its youth allows astronomers to see what our own solar system might have looked like billions of years ago. In contrast, our Sun is around 4.5 billion years old and has already evolved past this stage.
According to Laird Close, a professor at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, massive planets act like vacuums, clearing dust away and creating observable gaps in the dust disk surrounding the star. Among thousands of known exoplanets, only a handful are in this early protoplanetary stage.
The two planets, PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c, provide a unique opportunity for tracking the formation of worlds and their moons.
At the heart of this study is the MagAO-X system, installed on the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope in Chile. This technology corrects for blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere, allowing ground-based telescopes to achieve sharper images than even space-based telescopes like Hubble and James Webb. MagAO-X can adjust its mirror shape up to 2,000 times a second, effectively “untwinkling” stars, making them clearer for observation.
Jialin Li, a doctoral student and co-author of the study, highlighted the powerful imaging capabilities of MagAO-X, noting that it allows them to see details from 370 light-years away, similar to distinguishing whether a person is holding one quarter or two from 125 miles away.
One significant finding from these observations was the presence of bright, compact rings of dust around PDS 70 b and c. Over time, these rings are expected to form new moons, providing insight into how moons might develop in planetary systems.
Close noted, “For the first time, we can see rings of dust surrounding protoplanets illuminated by star light.” Understanding these early stages is crucial, as the presence of dusty disks affects how planets grow and whether they can develop substantial moons over millions of years.
Another intriguing discovery was how the brightness of the planets changed dramatically over just three years. PDS 70 b’s brightness dropped to one-fifth of its original value, while PDS 70 c’s brightness doubled. These fluctuations likely relate to hydrogen “waterfalls” hitting the surfaces of the planets, creating light at a specific wavelength.
Despite the insights gained, the exact reasons behind these rapid changes in brightness remain unclear. Continued observation may help clarify whether such variations are common in young protoplanets or reflect unique growth patterns.
The MagAO-X technology has opened new avenues for astronomers, who plan to search for more young worlds orbiting distant stars. While finding more planets in this early formation stage poses challenges, advancements in adaptive optics hint at a brighter future for ground-based discoveries.
By improving observational techniques through adaptive optics, astronomers aim to unravel the mystery of how stars and their planets form, offering a glimpse back into the early days of our solar system, which have been obscured by billions of years of evolution.
The study is published in The Astronomical Journal.
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