A team of astronomers have successfully captured the first image of a young, sun-like star in the company of two giant planets. The researchers published their findings Wednesday in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters (pdf).
It has never been possible to take a direct photo of a sun-like star with two planets. Astronomers have previously photographed a star with two planets twice, but those stars were clearly different from the sun.
It is the star with the name TYC 8998-760-1 that is about three hundred light years from Earth. The star in the constellation Musca (Fly) is only seventeen million years old, a youngster compared to our 4.5 billion year old sun.
“This discovery is a snapshot of an environment that has many similarities with our solar system, but at a much earlier stage of development,” said Alexander Bohn of Leiden Observatory and PhD candidate at Leiden University.
Young planets are warm and bright
Under Bohn’s guidance, the research team used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in Chile, for their recording. Young planets are so warm that they glow brightly in the infrared and were clearly visible with an advanced camera.
The two planets can be seen in the new image as two bright points of light well away from their parent star. By taking different pictures at different times, the team was able to distinguish these planets from the background stars.
The two planets consist mainly of gas, so-called gas giants, and are comparable to Jupiter or Saturn. However, they are much further away from their star than ‘our’ gas giants and are also a lot heavier.
The images can help astronomers understand how the planets formed and evolved around our own sun.
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