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The mystery of how planets are formed has boggled scientists for centuries, but newly captured photos of a fledgling planet nestled in the rings of a young dwarf star could be about to unlock the secrets of deep space.
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A team of 120 international scientists has become the first to capture a clear image of the growth of a baby planet.
Although the celestial being is still young – just five to six million years old – it already dwarfs Jupiter, the largest planet in our own solar system, the researchers told scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
"These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them," said Miriam Keppler, author and doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany.
The planet's name is PDS 70 b, due to the fact it orbits the star PDS 70. Reseachers were using the SPHERE, a planet-hunting instrument attached to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), to scan the star's rings when they stumbled upon the young planet.
Photos taken by the VLT in Chile on Monday confirms hypotheses that the planets were formed within the protoplanetary disks or rings of dust and gas surrounding a young star.
Dr. Zoe Leinhardt, a specialist in planetary formation and university computational astrophysicist in Bristol, told the Guardian: "For astronomers, most of the time, it is very rare that we are really able to show a picture.
"We just have to make an interpretation. This is almost undeniable, so it is very exciting. It does suggest that our idea for the way planet formation works is correct."
Andre Muller, a MPIA researcher based in Heidelberg, Germany, said: "Now we have proof that planetary objects (carve) a gap in the disk."
Astronomers will now be charged with monitoring the formation of the planet and its orbit around the star which, some scientists say, could take about 120 more years for a full revolution.
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