Just a few weeks ago, ESO showed a planetary system being born in a stunning new image.
This discovery is a snapshot of an environment that is very similar to our solar system, but at a much earlier stage in its development.
The first ever depiction of a multiplanetary system around a solar star. Credit: European Southern Observatory
Although astronomers have indirectly discoveredWith thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a small fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged. Direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life. Images of two or more exoplanets around the same star are even rarer. So far, only two such systems have been directly observed, both around stars noticeably different from our Sun. Today marks the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a solar star.
A team of scientists was able to make the firstA snapshot of two gas giant satellites orbiting a young solar counterpart. The two planets can be seen in the new image as two bright points of light distant from their parent star, which is located in the upper left corner of the frame. By taking different pictures at different times, the team was able to distinguish these planets from the background stars.
Two gas giants revolve around their starat a distance of 320 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The discovered exoplanets are much farther from their star than Jupiter or Saturn - also two gas giants - from the Sun. Exoplanets are located 5 and 10 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun, respectively. The team also discovered that the two exoplanets are much heavier than those in our solar system: the inner planet is 14 times the mass of Jupiter, and the outer one six times.
In this picture taken with the SPHERE tool onESO's very large telescope, shows TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant exoplanets, TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c. This is the first time astronomers have directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star like the Sun. The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the center (TYC 8998-760-1b) and at the bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) boxes marked with arrows. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are also visible in the image. By taking different pictures at different times, the team was able to distinguish the planets from the background stars. The image was taken by blocking light from a young solar star (top left of center) with a coronagraph that detects fainter planets. The bright and dark rings that we see in the image of the star are optical artifacts. Credit: ESO / Bohn et al.
Further observations of this system, includingincluding ESO's upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will allow astronomers to test whether these planets formed in their current location away from the star or migrated from elsewhere. ESO's ELT will also help explore the interaction of two young planets in the same system.
The possibility that future, more advancedinstruments that will be able to detect even smaller planets around this star is a milestone in understanding multi-planet systems that could affect the history of our own solar system, scientists conclude.
Read also
Look at the 3D map of the Universe: it was compiled for 20 years and it has already surprised scientists
Look at beetle larvae: they can save the planet from plastic by destroying it
How do we age? Scientists have a new explanation