Researchers discover first 'conjoined' twin planets in the universe

The ALMA radio observatory in Chile's deadly Atacama Desert has just collected incredible data from a pair of giant planets bound together in a single orbit.

That's something that's never been recorded before in the planetary world, according to Sci-News.

Parasitic asteroids have been known , if not common, in the Solar System before . But a planet-sized object is still a controversial theory.

What the team led by researcher Olga Balsalobre-Ruza from Spain's Astrobiology Center found was tantalizingly large.

ALMA images show that around the parent star PDS 70 in the middle is a large protoplanetary disk and several planets forming in the void, in which PDS 70b is circled with a smaller twin brother (circled with a dashed line) present next to it, in the same orbit - (Image: ALMA)

This "earth-shaking" discovery , just published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, comes from a star called PDS 70 , located 370 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.

It is a young star, only 5.4 million years old, containing two protoplanets and a giant disk of dust and gas surrounding the area from 20 to 40 AU (astronomical units, 1 AU is equal to the distance from the Sun to Earth).

22 AU from its parent star is planet PDS 70b and 34 AU away is planet PDS 70c, both of which are about the size of Jupiter.

But closer observations revealed a 'ghost' clinging to PDS 70b, orbiting alongside it. It's shape is unclear, just a cloud of debris, about twice the size of Earth's Moon. It could very well be a protoplanet.

In other words, PDS 70b has a smaller, almost conjoined twin, or what could be considered a "parasitic" planet that could have formed alongside it and stayed with it forever in the same orbit.

"Who could imagine two worlds sharing the same time of year and living conditions? Our work is the first evidence that this type of world could exist," said astronomer Balsalobre-Ruza.

According to senior author Dr Nuria Huelamo, this study is the first step in finding co-orbital planets very early in their formation.

The researchers plan to continue monitoring this strange world with another detailed survey in 2026 to see how PDS 70b and its twin move in orbit, and whether they are still together.

But whatever the outcome, the discovery of PDS 70b and its "little brother" is considered by astronomers to be a major breakthrough in exoplanet research.