Researchers verify 'baby' planet
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n June, researchers from the University announced they had located a potential planet around another star so young that it defied theorists' explanations. Now a new team of Rochester planet-formation specialists are backing up the original conclusions, saying they've confirmed that the hole formed in the star's dusty disk could very well have been formed by a new planet.
The findings have implications for gaining insight into how the solar system came to be as well as finding other possibly habitable planetary systems throughout the galaxy.
"The data suggests there's a young planet out there, but until now none of our theories made sense with the data for a planet so young," says Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy. "On the one hand, it's frustrating; but on the other, it's very cool because Mother Nature has just handed us the planet, and we've got to figure out how it must have been created."
Working from the original team's data, Frank, along with Alice Quillen, assistant professor of physics and astronomy; Eric Blackman, professor of physics and astronomy; and Peggy Varniere, postdoctoral fellow and instructor, revealed the planet was likely smaller than most extrasolar planets discovered thus far--about the size of Neptune. The data also suggest the planet is about the same distance from its parent star as our own Neptune is from the Sun. Most extrasolar planets discovered to date are much larger and orbit extremely close to their parent star.
The original Rochester team, led by Dan Watson, professor of physics and astronomy, used NASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope to detect a gap in the dust surrounding a fledgling star. The critical infrared "eyes" of the telescope were designed in part by physics and astronomy professors Judith Pipher, William Forrest, and Watson, a team that has been among the world leaders in opening the infrared window to the universe.
The discovered gap strongly signaled the presence of a planet. The dust in the disk is hotter in the center near the star and so radiates most of its light at shorter wavelengths than the cooler outer reaches of the disk. The research team found there was an abrupt dearth of light radiating at all short infrared wavelengths, strongly suggesting the central part of the disk was absent. Scientists know of only one phenomenon that can tunnel such a distinct hole in the disk during a star's short lifetime--a planet at least 100,000 years old.
The findings have been met with skepticism by many astronomers because neither of the leading planetary formation models--core accretion and gravitational instability--seem to allow for a planet this young.
"Even though it doesn't fit either model, we've crunched the numbers and shown that yes, in fact, that hole in that dust disk could have been formed by a planet," says Frank. "Now we have to look at our models and figure out how that planet got there. At the end of it all, we hope we have a new model and a new understanding of how planets come to be."
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