Baby exoplanet spotted growing around distant star

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory made the discovery using the Very Large Telescope in Chile , the baby planet is forming around the star AB Aurigae which is about 520 light-years away in the constellation Auriga.


We know there are many many planets out there but astronomers know little about how they form , this discovery could help shine more light on the processes involved.

But the VLT view, which was obtained using an instrument called SPHERE (short for "Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research"), adds something different and more detailed: a twist in those spiral arms. This twist likely pinpoints the spot where the exoplanet is taking shape, researchers report in a new study describing the observations.

"The twist is expected from some theoretical models of planet formation," study co-author Anne Dutrey, of the Astrophysics Laboratory of Bordeaux in France, said in a statement.

"It corresponds to the connection of two spirals — one winding inwards of the planet's orbit, the other expanding outwards — which join at the planet location," Dutrey said. "They allow gas and dust from the disk to accrete onto the forming planet and make it grow."
www.space.com...

Awww , Ickle baby planet right there.

a reply to: gortex

Nice Op mate, do the scientist know how long until they have reality TV stars on the planet?

Day 1 in the little big planet house

Aint nothing beat the power of the universe for making you realise you are lucky to be here, thank your lucky stars and all that, we are nothing but insects in the greater scheme of things.

Life is so small and insignificant yet still a miracle

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

I think they're safe for about a billion years.
How sad would it be if reality TV was Universal.

I'm not sure that that is exactly what is going on. Theoretically they think that could happen, but they just found it, they have not been observing it for years to be able to tell what is actually happening.

From the article....forget the title..."This twist likely pinpoints the spot where the exoplanet is taking shape"

Science can be just as deceiving as MSM but at least stuff like this makes people interested, not fearful or polarized. So I will not say it is bad, it is an integral way that science stimulates governments and individuals to give more funding for their research. It is harmless deceit, as long as they do not overcharge for their services it is all right.

I also know that no telescope can take a picture like the one that they posted in that little video. It is a computer generated interpretation of what is going on and I am sure that the rendering is somewhat close to what might be being observed, I am just not convinced yet that there is a planet forming, it possibly can be true, but who really knows, it is what one theory expected would be happening.

Growing? From like a seed or something? Cool!

a reply to: rickymouse

I also know that no telescope can take a picture like the one that they posted in that little video.

Radio telescopes can , the picture isn't an optical image.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: rickymouse

I also know that no telescope can take a picture like the one that they posted in that little video.

Radio telescopes can , the picture isn't an optical image.

It is most likely an adiabatic model. A rendering of data by a super computer that combines a bunch of stuff together to get a supposed picture of what it looks like.

Sort of like what is done in this link. iopscience.iop.org...

They can form a pretty accurate representation of what is happening by using this system, but it is not actually a picture. There is a lot of data used to create that image. I did some research on that stuff before, got a little OCD so knew what to look for. This kind of thing helps to reinforce one of the theories of how planets are formed.

It is about as real of an image as we can get with our present technology.

In the grand scheme of things, 520 light years is just a hop skip and a jump away. Not that it matters in a human lifetime. Or probably even on a species level.

I want one.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I also know that no telescope can take a picture like the one that they posted in that little video. It is a computer generated interpretation of what is going on

Actually, it's pretty much a straightforward optical image, albeit using adaptive optics and polarising filters. The image comes from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) camera. It provides direct imaging as well as spectroscopic and polarimetric characterization of exoplanet systems. The instrument operates in the visible and near infrared, achieving, albeit over a limited field of view, superior image quality and contrast for bright targets.

SPHERE comprises the following subsystems:

# The Common Path and Infrastructure (CPI) is the main optical bench. It receives direct light from the telescope, and passes on stabilized, active-optics-corrected, and coronagraph-filtered beams to the three sub-instruments.
# The Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) covers a 1.73" x 1.73" field of view, translating the spectral data into a three-dimensional (x,y,λ) data cube.
# The Infrared Dual-band Imager and Spectrograph (IRDIS) has a field of view of 11" x 12.5" with a pixel scale of 12.25 mas (milliarcsecond). IRDIS can provide classical imaging. Alternatively, it can be configured to provide simultaneous dual-band imaging using two different narrow bandpass filters targeting different spectral features, or it can be configured to provide simultaneous imaging from two crossed polarizers. When operating in long slit spectroscopy mode (LSS), a coronagraphic slit replaces the coronagraph mask.
# The Zurich Imaging Polarimeter (ZIMPOL) is a high contrast imaging polarimeter operating at the visual and infrared wavelengths, capable of achieving less than 30 mas resolution. It is also capable of diffraction limited classical imaging.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: rickymouse
I also know that no telescope can take a picture like the one that they posted in that little video. It is a computer generated interpretation of what is going on

Actually, it's pretty much a straightforward optical image, albeit using adaptive optics and polarising filters. The image comes from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) camera. It provides direct imaging as well as spectroscopic and polarimetric characterization of exoplanet systems. The instrument operates in the visible and near infrared, achieving, albeit over a limited field of view, superior image quality and contrast for bright targets.

SPHERE comprises the following subsystems:


# The Common Path and Infrastructure (CPI) is the main optical bench. It receives direct light from the telescope, and passes on stabilized, active-optics-corrected, and coronagraph-filtered beams to the three sub-instruments.
# The Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) covers a 1.73" x 1.73" field of view, translating the spectral data into a three-dimensional (x,y,λ) data cube.
# The Infrared Dual-band Imager and Spectrograph (IRDIS) has a field of view of 11" x 12.5" with a pixel scale of 12.25 mas (milliarcsecond). IRDIS can provide classical imaging. Alternatively, it can be configured to provide simultaneous dual-band imaging using two different narrow bandpass filters targeting different spectral features, or it can be configured to provide simultaneous imaging from two crossed polarizers. When operating in long slit spectroscopy mode (LSS), a coronagraphic slit replaces the coronagraph mask.
# The Zurich Imaging Polarimeter (ZIMPOL) is a high contrast imaging polarimeter operating at the visual and infrared wavelengths, capable of achieving less than 30 mas resolution. It is also capable of diffraction limited classical imaging.

I am not saying it is not a probable true representation of what is happening, I am saying it is a computer generated image of a bunch of evidence they collect. It puts that information into a 3D representation of what is happening. It is not a picture that one can get by taking a picture.

Also, in the writing, they clearly state they believe that this is forming a planet, they do not say it is forming a planet. It is a theory, there could be other reasons for that observance that we are not aware of....it is just a logical guess that it is forming a planet.

I have been a stickler for true science all of my life since I was a young teenager. I look for certain things in scientific writings, because I want to know what the people actually doing the research are saying, not someone who is glorifying the research are saying. It is impressive that they have created the technology to interpret what they are seeing, but it does not mean this is forming a planet, it could be forming a new star, it could be forming a black hole...it could be we are looking down the vortex of a black hole straight on. We do not know...if we were to observe it for a thousand years, we might have the ability to see what is actually happening, just observing it for even a decade cannot give us the evidence we need to actually make a true analogy of what is going on.

I love science and know that scientists often jump to conclusions....not actually the real scientists so much, the people who promote science. They want continual income coming in to maintain the research so they glorify things to keep money flowing into the research. There is definitely something going on, but I will not believe the title to the article yet until more evidence shows it is actually true.

I also do not believe in the big bang theory....because there is no way in hell that we could be able to determine if it is true from this point in space and time. It is a theory, and they keep structuring research to verify their theory...but in essence, the answer is impossible to know. It could be right, I give it a one in ten thousand chance of being correct, but in actuallity, it really does not matter how our universe was formed, I would rather see these scientists working on ways to keep us from destroying the biodome we live in than focusing on something that we cannot actually ever know for sure from this point in space.

The information you supplied does not confuse me at all, I know somewhat how that stuff works, after all, I did belong to a physics site for a while and read a lot about things like that, needing to study technology to be able to fit into the group so I did not feel like a fool commenting on the site. Also some of those scientists steered me to research on things to find out how it worked, which I liked. Then I would come back with another question or information I needed, so some would send me to research to find the answer. I actually appreciate them teaching me how to figure things out on my own instead of telling me the answer. Then I came back and posted the answer and they would tell me Yes that is the answer. There were half a dozen people there in different professions that I learned from...It was cool, one of the guys from CERN was very helpful in increasing my comprehension.