Stellar nursery 450 light years away where stars are born reveals that rocky planets like Earth and Neptune ARE the most common
- A hidden stash of planets has been found around young stars in the universe
- They were observed 450 million light years away in the Taurus constellation
- These infant planetary systems could explain how our solar system developed
- Astronomers spotted the planets against the brightness of their stars using the ALMA telescope in the Chilean desert
Astronomers have found evidence of a hidden stash of planets surrounding young stars in the universe.
They say these could include large numbers of 'super-Earths' and planets the size of Neptune.
These infant planetary systems could help explain how our own solar system came to exist and the process of its formation.
Scroll down for video
Astronomers have found evidence of a hidden stash of planets surrounding young stars in the universe. They say these could include large numbers of 'super-Earths' and planets the size of Neptune (pictured)
The research, published in the Astrophysical Journal, looked at a segment of sky with a high concentration of young stars in a star-forming region in the constellation Taurus 450 million light years away.
It says that when the solar system formed around 4.6 billion years ago it was originally a swirl of dust and gas around the juvenile sun.
This, over millions of years, turned the indistinct protoplanetary disc into clumps of matter and, eventually, planets.
The aggregation of space debris eventually created the solar syatem as we know it today.
Jupiter, the largest of the planets, is well-known in its formation of the rocky planets nearest to the sun as its early path took it close to the sun.
Its immense gravity removed all dust close to the sun and encouraged the process of planet formation, previous research suggests.
Asteroids, moons, rings and planets all formed into the solar system today - all orbiting the sun.
Scientists base this scenario of how our solar system came to be on observations of protoplanetary disks around other young stars.
WHAT IS ALMA?
Deep in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, or ALMA, is located in one of the driest places on Earth.
At an altitude of 16,400ft, roughly half the cruising height of a jumbo jet and almost four times the height of Ben Nevis, workers had to carry oxygen tanks to complete its construction.
Switched on in March 2013, it is the world's most powerful ground based telescope.
It is also the highest on the planet and, at almost £1 billion ($1.2 billion), one of the most expensive of its kind.
Deep in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, or ALMA, is located in one of the driest places on Earth. Switched on in March 2013, it is the world's most powerful ground based telescope
These are young enough to still create new planets and researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, telescope in the Chilean desert.
Researchers imaged 32 stars and found that 12 of them—40 per cent—have rings and gaps.
Astronomers working on the project claim this can be best explained by the presence of planets.
'This is fascinating because it is the first time that exoplanet statistics, which suggest that super-Earths and Neptunes are the most common type of planets, coincide with observations of protoplanetary disks,' said the paper's lead author, Feng Long, a doctoral student at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University in Bejing, China.
It remains unclear how common disks with ring and gap structures are in the universe.
Researchers imaged 32 stars and found that 12 of them—40 per cent—have rings and gaps. Astronomers working on the project claim this can be best explained by the presence of planets (Stock)
Since detecting the individual planets directly is impossible because of the overwhelming brightness of the host star, the team performed calculations to get an idea of the kinds of planets that might be forming in the Taurus star-forming region.
According to the findings, Neptune-sized gas planets or so-called super-Earths—terrestrial planets of up to 20 Earth masses—should be the most common.
Only two of the observed disks could potentially harbour behemoths rivalling Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
'Since most of the current exoplanet surveys can't penetrate the thick dust of protoplanetary disks, all exoplanets, with one exception, have been detected in more evolved systems where a disk is no longer present,' Dr Paola Pinilla, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory said.
Scientists study the atmosphere of distant exoplanets using enormous space satellites like Hubble
Distant stars and their orbiting planets often have conditions unlike anything we see in our atmosphere.
To understand these new world's, and what they are made of, scientists need to be able to detect what their atmospheres consist of.
They often do this by using a telescope similar to Nasa's Hubble Telescope.
These enormous satellites scan the sky and lock on to exoplanets that Nasa think may be of interest.
Here, the sensors on board perform different forms of analysis.
One of the most important and useful is called absorption spectroscopy.
This form of analysis measures the light that is coming out of a planet's atmosphere.
Every gas absorbs a slightly different wavelength of light, and when this happens a black line appears on a complete spectrum.
These lines correspond to a very specific molecule, which indicates it's presence on the planet.
They are often called Fraunhofer lines after the German astronomer and physicist that first discovered them in 1814.
By combining all the different wavelengths of lights, scientists can determine all the chemicals that make up the atmosphere of a planet.
The key is that what is missing, provides the clues to find out what is present.
It is vitally important that this is done by space telescopes, as the atmosphere of Earth would then interfere.
Absorption from chemicals in our atmosphere would skew the sample, which is why it is important to study the light before it has had chance to reach Earth.
This is often used to look for helium, sodium and even oxygen in alien atmospheres.
This diagram shows how light passing from a star and through the atmosphere of an exoplanet produces Fraunhofer lines indicating the presence of key compounds such as sodium or helium
Most watched News videos
- Iran propaganda video trolls Trump showing him thrown into Hell
- Petsitters caught kicking dog they were paid £1,400 to look after
- Terrifying Texas bridge reopens after shut for over a year
- Clavicular seen in unsettling livestream before hospitalization
- Harry says he had to 'cleanse myself of past' before having children
- Keir Starmer let rip at Sir Lindsay Hoyle after he admonished him
- 'Animal rights activist' steals live lobster from a restaurant
- Chinese tanker makes U-turn after passing the Strait of Hormuz
- Angry stranger kicks door and demands to enter Bay Area home
- Harry 'cheesed off' after being asked for selfie in Australia
- JD Vance heckled as he responds to Trump's beef with Pope Leo
- What happens when a President compares himself to Jesus?
