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The hunt started when researchers spotted a young star about 375 light-years from Earth called PDS70. The disc of dust surrounding the star had a gap—a sign that planets might be carving out that space. Last year, they took the first direct image of a planet forming. And when another team checked back months later, they found and photographed a second planet.

Telescope catches two planets in act of being born.

In a first, researchers found and photographed two newborn planets after spotting its young sun 375 light-years away.

Researchers photograph two newborn planets for the first time.

Astronomers Photograph 2 Newborn Planets for the First Time

Telescope catches two planets in act of being born.

Astronomers Photograph Two Newborn Planets for the First Time

Space & Flight

Astronomers Photograph Two Newborn Planets for the First TimePublished: June 28, 2019Onscreen: For the 1st time, astronomers photographed 2 newborn planets forming in a distant solar system. Two Newborn Planets Captured. Funded in part by Draper.The hunt started when researchers spotted a young star about 375 light-years from Earth called PDS70. The disc of dust surrounding the star had a gap, which might mean…Julien Girard: Maybe you have planets carving out that space.Onscreen: Last year, astronomers took the first direct image of a planet forming. (The dark circle blocks the light of the planet’s star.) But when another team checked back months later, they were in for a surprise.They found and photographed a second planet. This was the first time two newborn planets were photographed together. Girard: Some modelers had done some simulations saying that with one planet alone, they couldn’t carve such a big gap. So, probably there need to be more planets, in particular, a second, slightly less massive planet.Onscreen: The simulations seem to be right. The first planet is around 4-17 times the mass of Jupiter and the second planet is around 1-10 times the mass of Jupiter. Finding and photographing two planets is a technological achievement. Girard: Making images of exoplanets, so planets that rotate around other stars than our sun, is a big deal because it’s hard. It’s a bit like trying to see a firefly right next to a lighthouse at about 800 miles.You need to see something faint next to something really bright. We’re talking about planets which are a few hundred, a few thousand, a few tens of thousands of times fainter than their star.Onscreen: You need a really big telescope to distinguish the planet from the star. Girard: We’re talking about a little, tiny patch of separation.Onscreen: It’s easier to spot planets around young stars because those planets are also hot. Girard: The brightness of the planet with respect to the star is still pretty high.Onscreen: Astronomers hope to learn more about planetary formation from this system. One theory is called gravitational instability. Girard: Imagine this young star with a lot of dust and gas around it.Onscreen: As the dust starts to slow down, it forms a disc. Girard: And inside the disc, you have some instability that start to make some kind of like, vortices that start at their own scale to form objects. Onscreen: This may be how the exoplanets around PDS 70 formed. In 2004, the first exoplanet was directly imaged. Since then, technological improvements have allowed imaging of 46 exoplanets. That number will likely continue to rise.

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Astronomers Photograph 2 Newborn Planets for the First Time

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