Unexpected discoveries in the constellation Taurus: how planets are born
Astronomers examined young stars in the constellation Taurus and tried to figure out how protoplanetary disks are formed from the future of the planet and other celestial bodies.
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By studying young stars in the Taurus constellation, astronomers trying to understand how to develop our own Solar system. About 4.6 billion years ago, it was a whirlwind of gas and dust surrounding the newborn sun. In the early stages of development of this so-called “protoplanetary disk” did not have any hallmarks, but gradually matter began to condense and form planets.
The more these clots absorbed substance, the more it changed the drive: over time, he became the familiar planets, moons, asteroid belts and comets just.
This scenario of formation of the Solar system, scientists are based on data collected from observations of younger stars. Using the ALMA array in the Atacama desert in Chile (currently it consists of 45 radio antennas) astronomers have taken away in the constellation Taurus 32 stars surrounded by protoplanetary disks. During observations it became clear that 12 of them (almost 40%) have a characteristic protoplanetary discs in which there are visible gaps can be explained by the presence of emerging planets.
It’s very interesting. Statistics ekzoplanetu says Super-Earth and Super-Neptune — the most common type of such planets. And for the first time these data coincide with the results of actual observations of protoplanetary disks.Feng Longdistant from the Institute of astronomy and astrophysics to them. Kavli in Beijing universitycollege
Although most of the protoplanetary disks look like uniform similar to crepes objects, devoid of any patterns or structural features, there are exceptions. Astronomers have found disks that are divided into annular zones. Previously, scientists have studied primarily the brightest objects (because they are easiest to detect), but because it was not clear how often in the Universe there are disks with bumps and spots and what caused these distortions. Here in the case and enters a new study for the first time researchers have created a collection which included a variety of disks and bright, and not very much.
Astronomers had hypothesized that the color of the disc can’t change the emerging of the planet, and the change in the chemical composition of the dust particles in response to oscillating magnetic fields. However, researchers have carefully studied all the data and came to the conclusion that no link between magnetic fields and gaps within the discs is not observed. In the end, after analyzing the “perforated” structure of the discs, they came to the conclusion that the visible ruptures and distortion of the leaf disk is the result of the formation of new planets.
Most of them are Super — Earth and Super-Neptune, the planet that is equivalent to 20 Earth masses or Neptune.
Only two of the 32 disks showed the beginnings of giant planets like our Jupiter.
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