NASA's Hubble Discovers Forming Planet With Mass 9 Times Larger Than Jupiter
(Photo : Photo by Mariana SUAREZ / AFP) (Photo by MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a forming planet in the far reaches of the universe that is similar to Jupiter but with a mass roughly nine times that of the gas giant. The discovery of the planet supports a theory of planet formation that some experts have been skeptical about.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new planet that was forming in an unusual way but already has nine times as much mass as Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our solar system.

While experts have a good understanding of what many planets are made of, the initial stage of planet formation, the process from a diffuse cloud of gas and dust to a solar system with a central star and rocky and/or gaseous worlds spread out in a chain, remains a mystery.

Massive Protoplanet

The dominant theory for gas planets such as Jupiter is that they originate as something as a "core accretion." This is a process that works similarly to how terrestrial planets, such as Earth, form and become what they are now.

The theory states that a planet undergoes a two-stage process where its core is formed via multiple collisions between planetesimals, which are essentially pieces of cosmic dust. But a long-debated theory about how Jupiter-like planets form, known as "disk instability," is another possible explanation, as per Salon.

 

Scientists hypothesize in this theory that gaseous planets form when part of a circumstellar disk becomes dense and cool enough to be vulnerable to gravitation collapse. It states that the process can result in the formation of a gaseous "protoplanet" that is considered to be a planet embryo.

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However, up until now, experts are unable to directly observe such a process occurring in the natural universe. But on Monday, a study published in the Apr. 4 issue of Nature Astronomy shows that the Hubble has directly photographed evidence of a protoplanet growing through an "intense and violent process."

According to The Guardian, the researchers that made the discovery used the Subaru telescope, which is found near the summit of an inactive Hawaiian volcano orbiting the Hubble, to detect and study the planet known as AB Aurigae b. The cosmic body is a gas giant that is orbiting unusually far from its young host star.

Planet Formation

The new world that is forming is embedded in a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas with a distinct spiral structure. They swirl around a young star that is estimated to be roughly 2 million years old. This is about the same age as our solar system when planet formation was underway.

The lead researcher on the study, Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and Eureka Scientific, said that nature is very clever. They noted that it can produce planets in a variety of different ways that astound experts.

AB Aurigae b is located some 8.6 billion miles away from its host star, which is roughly two times farther than Pluto is from our own Sun. Currie said that interpreting data regarding the planet was "extremely challenging."

Currie said that Hubble's longevity also played a particular role in assisting researchers in measuring the protoplanet's orbit. Originally, he was very skeptical of the planet actually being a planet. But archival data from Hubble and imaging from Subaru proved to be a turning point in changing his mind, NASA reported.


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