The unstudied planetary formations are still a big mystery, like a puzzle for modern astronomy. Scientists at the moment know that all stars are dependent on the system of planets: from the tiniest Mercury, an area with a small rocky world, to the giant Jupiter and massive gas-like ones objects. The mystery is that it is not yet known what kind of material serves as the basis for the formation of even the smallest planets, as well as how much time is needed for the emergence of an elementary cosmic body.
Now, using the amazing Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescope complex (abbreviated as ALMA), astronomers can see even the most insignificant young stars and continue to monitor their formation. It is possible that the formations will be able to grow to the scale of Jupiter or become a large space object at all.
When a star is born, the phenomenon is often accompanied by a manifestation of a protoplanetary disk, like in Saturn. When the process is completed, the star is deposited, and the disk "dissolves". Its small accumulations of dust stick together, eventually creating gravitationally-dominant proplanets, which, being in the cosmic vacuum, attract more and more material to themselves. Thus, the size of tumors grows. Of particular interest to astronomers are transient disks that do not contain dust neither in the center, nor in the middle, nor at the edges of the disk. At first it may seem very strange. Astronomers explain this phenomenon as the result of a long process of stellar radiation (as soon as the star matures, there is a sharp ejection of all cosmic dust). If any objects are in the emission zone, they will “absorb” the dust and get rid of gravitational dominance.
We have been in a certain impasse for some time: can we say that the emission is caused by the pressure of internal radiation when planets are formed?
The area that ALMA is currently exploring contains about 4 young stars. They attracted attention by the fact that they contain not only dust layers, but also gas, only several times thinner. If the observation period is extended, then there is a chance to determine why this happened. For now this can only mean one thing.
"Previous observations have already hinted at the presence of gas inside the dust layers," said Ninke Van Der Marel, an astronomer at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. "ALMA can make a picture of the material in more detail so far a single disk. By focusing on working with a single object, good results can be achieved. Obviously, the huge area of interconnecting space can indicate the possibility of the formation of a planet several times larger than Jupiter’s mass itself. Despite the fact that we have been observing the most alien star systems for a long time, these studies ultimately show how exactly new planets are formed in our huge Solar System. Perhaps this discovery will be the key to the study and understanding of planetary evolution. The ALMA observatory will be able to provide answers to more complex questions, but more on that later.
“Telescopes of a longer distance with the newest modifications are currently at the development stage. For example, the European extremely large telescope will have much more advanced capabilities. The ALMA observatory will tell him exactly where he should look,” astronomer added. Leiden Observatory and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany.
