An artist’s impression of the HD 100546
system. A planet that is still in the process of forming could be
boosting a transfer of material from the gas-rich outer part of the disk
to the inner regions.
Credit: David Cabezas Jimeno (SEA
Astronomers have successfully peered through the amniotic
sac of a star that is still forming to observe the innermost region of a
burgeoning solar system for the first time.
In a researcher paper published today in the journal Monthly
notice of the Royal Astronomical society, the international team of researchers
described their findings in their observations of the parent star, which is
called HD 100546.
“Nobody have ever seen this close to a star that is still
forming and which also has at least one planet so close in,” said Lead author
Dr. Ignacio Mendigutia, from the school of physics and Astronomy at the
University of Leeds.
“We have been able to detect for the first time emission
from the innermost part of the disk of the gas that surrounds the central star.
Unexpectedly, this emission is similar to that of barren young stars that do
not show any signs of planet formation.
The astronomers used the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
(VLTI) to observe the distant system. The Observatory is based in Chile. The
VLTI combines the four wide 8.2m-wide telescope and can make images as sharp as
that of a single telescope that is 130m in diameter. Yeah, telescopes are very
wide.
The distance that separate we from the star system is very
large, 325 light-years, “it was like trying to observe something the size of a
pinhead from 100km away,” said Professor Rene Oudmaijer, a co-author of the
study.
HD 100546 is a young star, compared to the age of the Sun,
it is only a thousandth the age of the Sun, and it is surrounded by a disk
shaped structure of gas and dust, called proto-planetary disk. In which planets
can form. Such disks are common around young stars, but the one around HD
100546 is very peculiar: if the star were placed at the center of our Solar
System, the outer part of the disk would extend ten times the orbit of Pluto.
“More interestingly, the disk exhibits a gap that is devoid
of material. This gap is very large, about 10 times the size of space that
separates sun from earth. The inner disk of gas could only survive for a few
years before being trapped by the central star, so it must be continuously
replenished somehow,” said Dr Mendigutia.
“We suggest that the gravitational influence of the
still-forming planet----or planets—in the gap could be boosting a transfer of
materials from the gas rich outer part of the disk to the inner regions.
“With the observation of the inner disk of gas in the HD
100546 system, we’re beginning to understand the earliest life of planet
hosting stars on a scale that is comparable to our solar system,” concludes
Professor Oudmaijer.
This is a progress to humanity knowledge of the universe,
how I wish our technology could allow us to reach these vast areas of the cosmos.
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