Scientists see the process of the formation of moons on Jupiter-like planets.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Scientists have managed to see and identify more clearly the disk of gas and dust surrounding a Jupiter-like planet beyond solar system which eventually formed the moon. This discovery is interesting and important, given that it can help reveal how planets and month can be formed
“These observations are unique and long-awaited, to test theories of planet formation and to observe firsthand the birth of planets and their satellites,” said astronomer and study leader Myriam Benisty of the University of Grenoble. daily sabah, Monday (26/7).
In a study published last Thursday in Astrophysical Journal Letters Then, the researchers used the ALMA observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert to detect a rotating disk of matter accumulating around one of the two newborn planets. The planet, which appears to be orbiting a young star, is relatively close, 370 light-years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers (5.9 trillion miles).
According to the researchers, the discovery was called a circum planetary disk, which eventually created the moon. The discovery, the researchers continued, offers a deeper understanding of the formation of planets and moons.
So far, more than 4,400 planets have been discovered outside our solar system, which are called exoplanets. However, no circum planetary disks have been found until now because of all eksoplanet known to reside in a “mature” and fully developed solar system.
Study co-author Stefano Facchini of the European Southern Observatory said in our solar system Saturn is a relic of the ancient moon-forming disk. More than 80 moons orbit Saturn.
The newly discovered planet, the orange star PDS 70. It has about the same mass as the sun, is about 5 million years old. One of these two planets is even younger, although both are similar and larger than Jupiter.
“Both planets are still in their youth,” Facchini said.
That said, the disk around PDS 70 c, with a diameter roughly equal to the distance from Earth to the Sun, has enough mass to produce up to three moons the size of Earth’s. However, it is still unclear how many Moons will form.
– .
