Young stars are surrounded by chaos: Clouds of gas, dust and ice swirl about in a so-called protoplanetary disk. And when gravity binds this material together, planets are born.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers developed a new technique to measure and date infant exoplanets forming in these protoplanetary disks. By studying “little hurricanes” within protoplanetary disks that are visible in ALMA data, astronomers can make educated guesses about the exoplanets that caused these vortices to form.
Under most circumstances, scientists can use powerful telescopes to observe the dimming of stars, which indicates that an exoplanet is transiting, or passing between Earth and the star. But this research team is specifically studying young exoplanets that are distant from their stars, and these planets can’t be seen clearly with traditional techniques.
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