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New telescope array captures planet-forming disk orbiting distant star


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ARS TECHNICA

John Timmer

Nov 7 2014

 

Yesterday, the European Southern Observatory released the first images taken with the upgraded version of its ALMA telescope. The images capture a disk of material orbiting the young star HL Tauri in exquisite detail, showing gaps in the disk that are likely to be created by the formation of larger, potentially planet-sized bodies.

 

ALMA stands for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. As its name implies, it's located in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest regions on the planet. It's also placed at 5,000 meters above sea level; the combination limits the imaging complications posed by Earth's atmosphere. ALMA is an array of multiple individual telescopes, with the final image constructed by mathematically processing the input of each individual telescope.

 

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141105_ALMA_HL_01-640x640.jpg

 

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The gaps seen in the image are typically cleared out by the presence of larger bodies—potentially planet-sized—in the area or influenced by the presence of gravitational resonances among multiple planets in a single system. Either option suggests that planet formation is well under way in the HL Tauri exosolar system—before there's even a fully formed star present.

 

Existing models of planet formation suggest that the process shouldn't be able to produce bodies of sufficient size to create these gaps within the relatively short time that HL Tauri has existed. So, this will almost certainly not be the last time that ALMA directs its gaze to HL Tauri, and the full description of these observations may cause a rethink of our models of planetary formation.

 

 

 

H/T Glenn Reynolds

 

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