After studying the protoplanetary disk HD163296, located more than 300 light years from Earth, a team of Chilean astronomers discovered 2 planets formingsimilar to Saturn and that bring new findings about the formation of solar systems.
As indicated a statement from the CATA Astrophysics Center, the study data were obtained from the ALMA radio telescope (Atacama Large Millimeter-Submillimeter Array), located in the Antofagasta region, Chile and studied by scientists from CATA and the Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUC).
The two planets in formation are in a developing solar system that, according to the investigation, keeps all its orbits perfectly synchronized.
“This ‘beautiful chord’ comes from the effect that the disc produces on the movement of the planets and shows us the way in which planets migrate towards their parent star”, explains Cristobal Petrovich, an astronomer at the UC Institute of Astrophysics and a researcher at the CATA Astrophysics Center.
“In general terms, this work tells us how planetary systems are accommodating their orbits during their gestation”, he adds.
What is a ‘protoplanetary disk’?
Notably a protoplanetary disk are clouds of gas and dust that extend around young stars. From this material, planets are formed that will eventually form a new solar system.
It was exactly in the HD163296 disk, which they compare to a crescent of dust, that they identified the two forming planets, along with another pair that is further out of the disk.
This finding It will allow us to know details about how the planets in planetary systems that are still developing accommodate their orbits and are located with their stars
The study was developed by Juan Garrido-Deutelmoser, Chilean PUC-CATA astronomers Viviana Guzmán and Cristobal Petrovich, Carolina Charalambous from the University of Namur, and Ke Zhang from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was also published in the magazine The Astrophysical Journal Letters.