Giant newborn planet

2002/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

American researchers have detected a gaseous giant such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus 320 light-years from us. The discovery is very interesting because the planet is in the process of formation and can help to understand the solar system.

The Sun, in its youth, was surrounded by a disk of dust and gas, called protoplanetary disk, in which condensations formed the planets that make up the solar system. But astronomers have nothing clear that in those records there was enough material to create giant planets like Jupiter.

Above the mystery, it is clear that the giant planets are not the particularity of our system, since all the planets that have been detected outside the solar system are gas giants. The latter is discovered on the protoplanetary disc of the star HD141569. Astronomers have received from there the light emitted by the H3+ group, which until now has only been found in the atmosphere of the giant planets.