First observed the process of conception of a planet

American scientists have for the first time observed the whole process of "conception" of a planet, thanks to high-powered telescopes and new observation technologies.

The process of forming a planet

According to the Washington Post, when a new star is formed, it creates a large amount of dust and surrounding gas. This dust and gas will gradually form planets orbiting it. However, it is difficult to track the formation of these planets, because the gas dust will obscure the light from that star to Earth.

New research was done by Stephanie Sallum and Kate Follette, two students behind Arizona and Stanford University. They focused on observing the star LkCa15 , located 450 light years from Earth.

Simulation of the star system has three newly formed planets.(Photo: NASA).

"The reason we chose this system because it was formed around a very new star, with the amount of surrounding material due to the star formation process , " Follette said. "It's like a giant round cake, the inside is hollow, about the size of the solar system. The planets will form inside this space."

The team used high-powered telescopes and new techniques to observe the star system's protoplanets . They look for light emitted by hydrogen gas when sucked into new planets. This process has a very high temperature, about 9,700 degrees Celsius and emits red light.

"The difference between the brightness of a star and a new planet is like comparing a beacon to a firefly. It is therefore difficult to separate light from a planet to observe. "We have to focus on observing a particular light color that the planet emits the most. The signal will be much stronger," Follette said.

The study was published in the November 18 issue of Nature. In this way, the team identified the orbit of the two new planets and suspected that a third planet might be available. They are now like giant gas balls. They were surprised to discover at least one planet formed about two million years ago.

Commenting on this issue, Astronomer Zhaohuan Zhu, Princeton University, said the finding helped answer many questions.

"Almost no one knows how micro-sized dust particles can grow to 14 orders of magnitude to become a giant planet" , but "a new way to find young planets around a star will help find many similar planets in the future ".