A UVic doctoral candidate led a new study that offers a clearer picture of how planets are born alongside stars, findings that are an exciting step toward understanding the development of planets.
Mercury, centre left, passes between Earth and the sun, Nov. 11, 2019, as seen from Lutherville-Timonium, Md. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Julio Cortez
But the study Blakely led used a special setting on a Canadian-made instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope to zoom in on the phenomenon playing out in the later stages of two planets forming around a young star known as PDS 70. The latest study, published in the peer-reviewed Astronomical Journal, goes further, finding what Blakely said was “convincing evidence” of warm dust nearby.
“We think we’re getting into the region where exomoons might be forming,” Blakely said. “We don’t find evidence of that, but we’re starting to get a picture of what the structure of these circumplanetary disks looks like around these planets.”The study is “not anywhere close to the final answer” about how planets and their atmospheres form, but it is an important step in the process, Blakely said.
The research offers a snapshot of a “cosmic nursery” as planets compete for the material they need to grow, he said in a statement issued by the university.
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