Alien Planet Photo Captured By ESO Very Large Telescope (Photo)
Here is what a baby gas giant alien planet coming together looks like.
This composite image shows a view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and from the NACO system on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (right) of the gas and dust around the young star HD 100546. Image released Feb 28, 2013.
A team of researchers studied the star HD 100546, which lies 335 light-years from Earth, and published the results in the latest issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Title: A Young Protoplanet Candidate Embedded in the Circumstellar Disk of HD 100546
Authors: Sascha P. Quanz, Adam Amara, Michael R. Meyer, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Markus Kasper, and Julien H. Girard
doi:10.1088/2041-8205/766/1/L1
Abstract:
We present high-contrast observations of the circumstellar environment of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD 100546. The final 3.8 ?m image reveals an emission source at a projected separation of 0.”48 ± 0.”04 (corresponding to ~47 ± 4 AU) at a position angle of 8fdg9 ± 0fdg9. The emission appears slightly extended with a point source component with an apparent magnitude of 13.2 ± 0.4 mag. The position of the source coincides with a local deficit in polarization fraction in near-infrared polarimetric imaging data, which probes the surface of the well-studied circumstellar disk of HD 100546. This suggests a possible physical link between the emission source and the disk. Assuming a disk inclination of ~47°, the de-projected separation of the object is ~68 AU. Assessing the likelihood of various scenarios, we favor an interpretation of the available high-contrast data with a planet in the process of forming. Follow-up observations in the coming years can easily distinguish between the different possible scenarios empirically. If confirmed, HD 100546 “b” would be a unique laboratory to study the formation process of a new planetary system, with one giant planet currently forming in the disk and a second planet possibly orbiting in the disk gap at smaller separations.