These gas clumps could collapse to form planets the size of Jupiter
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A new image released by the European Southern Observatory today, July 25, sheds new light on a process whereby planets as large as Jupiter are formed out of gas clumps surrounding stars, a press statement reveals.
A team of researchers used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect large dusty clumps near a young star called V960 Mon.
These cosmic dust clouds could eventually collapse under their own gravity to create giant planets.
Material surrounding star could 'give rise to giant planets'
The researchers behind the new observation explain that it is the first example of an observation showing gas clumps that could become massive planets. They published their findings in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"This discovery is truly captivating as it marks the very first detection of clumps around a young star that have the potential to give rise to giant planets," says Alice Zurlo, a researcher at the Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, involved in the observations.
The scientists obtained the observation using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO's VLT. It reveals impressive details of the material surrounding the young star V960 Mon, located roughly 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Monoceros.
The first evidence of 'gravitational instability'
V960 Mon drew the attention of astronomers in 2014 when it suddenly increased in brightness more than twenty times. Initial observations with SPHERE showed that the material orbiting V960 Mon is assembling in intricate spiral arms extending over distances larger than our solar system.
In follow-up observations using ALMA, scientists could peer deeper into the structure of the dusty material. "With ALMA, it became apparent that the spiral arms are undergoing fragmentation, resulting in the formation of clumps with masses akin to those of planets," Zurlo said.
Scientists believe that one of the ways giant planets form is when large fragments of dusty material around a star contract and collapse in a process called 'gravitational instability'.
"No one had ever seen a real observation of gravitational instability happening at planetary scales – until now," explained Philipp Weber, a researcher at the University of Santiago, Chile, who led the new study.
"Our group has been searching for signs of how planets form for over ten years, and we couldn't be more thrilled about this incredible discovery," added team member Sebastián Pérez from the University of Santiago, Chile.
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