{"id":24169,"date":"2021-07-22T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=24169"},"modified":"2021-07-21T17:48:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T21:48:29","slug":"eso-moon-forming-disk-observed-around-exoplanet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=24169","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Moon-forming disk observed around exoplanet"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Astronomers make first clear detection of a moon-forming disc around an exoplanet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This image, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, shows wide (left) and close-up (right) views of the moon-forming disc surrounding PDS 70c, a young Jupiter-like planet nearly 400 light-years away. The close-up view shows PDS 70c and its circumplanetary disc centre-front, with the larger circumstellar ring-like disc taking up most of the right-hand side of the image. The star PDS 70 is at the centre of the wide-view image on the left. Two planets have been found in the system, PDS 70c and PDS 70b, the latter not being visible in this image. They have carved a cavity in the circumstellar disc as they gobbled up material from the disc itself, growing in size. In this process, PDS 70c acquired its own circumplanetary disc, which contributes to the growth of the planet and where moons can form. This circumplanetary disc is as large as the Sun-Earth distance and has enough mass to form up to three satellites the size of the Moon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using the Atacama Large Millimetre\/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, astronomers have unambiguously detected the presence of a disc around a planet outside our Solar System for the first time. The observations will shed new light on how moons and planets form in young stellar systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work presents a clear detection of a disc in which satellites could be forming,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

says Myriam Benisty, a researcher at the University of Grenoble, France, and at the University of Chile, who led the new research published today in The\u00a0Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ALMA observations were obtained at such exquisite resolution that we could clearly identify that the disc is associated with the planet and we are able to constrain its size for the first time,\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

she adds.<\/p>\n

The disc in question, called a circumplanetary disc, surrounds the exoplanet PDS 70c, one of two giant, Jupiter-like planets orbiting a star nearly 400 light-years away. Astronomers had found hints<\/a> of a \u201cmoon-forming<\/em>\u201d disc around this exoplanet before but, since they could not clearly tell the disc apart from its surrounding environment, they could not confirm its detection \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n