3 young planets in orbit around an infant star tagged posts

Last year, the Dawn spacecraft spied organic material near Ernutet crater on the dwarf planet Ceres, largest denizen of the asteroid belt. A new analysis suggests those organics could be more plentiful than originally thought. Credit: NASA / Hannah Kaplan

New technique could find some of the youngest planets in our galaxy. Two independent teams of astronomers have uncovered convincing evidence that three young planets are in orbit around an infant star known as HD 163296. Using a new planet-finding strategy, the astronomers identified 3 discrete disturbances in a young star’s gas-filled disk: the strongest evidence yet that newly formed planets are in orbit there.

Over the past several years, ALMA has transformed our understanding of protoplanetary disks – the gas- and dust-filled planet f...