Previously Unseen Stage of Planet Formation Observed

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Previously Unseen Stage of Planet Formation Observed

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 4, 2013 @02:34AM from the fully-operational-battleplanets dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "Seen from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile; scientists have detected a gas giant planet focusing material from a gas cloud toward a main star. The star, HD 142527, is a young 2 million years old, and is 450 light-years from Earth. The system has 'A disk of spinning dust and gas left over from its formation... and from this material, planets are being created.' The planetesimals are drawing material from the dust cloud inward, effectively fueling the expansion of the parent star, currently twice the size of our own Sun. 'Theoretical simulations have predicted such bridges between outer and inner portions of disks surrounding stars, but none have been directly observed until now.' Simon Casassus, lead scientist at the University of Chile, said, 'Currently, the only mechanism known to produce such gap-crossing dense molecular flows, with residual carbon monoxide gas more diffusely spread out inside the gap, is planetary formation.' While the planets currently are not visible, their presence is very noticeable. More examination of the dust cloud is needed to precisely pinpoint the planet(s)."

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Very cool! by SternisheFan · 2013-01-04 02:46 · Score: 1

Proof of how nature abhors a vacuum.
1. Re:Very cool! by alendit · 2013-01-04 03:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space#Intergalactic
  
  Present estimates put the average energy density of the Universe at the equivalent of 5.9 protons per cubic meter, including dark energy, dark matter, and ordinary, baryonic matter, or atoms.
  The Nature IS vacuum.
2. Re:Very cool! by wonkey_monkey · 2013-01-04 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  If nature abhorred a vacuum, it wouldn't be condensing planets out of dust and gas, leaving behind "more" vacuum ;)
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
3. Re:Very cool! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 04:32 · Score: 0
  
  If nature liked vacuum we wouldn't have matter to begin with.
4. Re:Very cool! by jovius · 2013-01-04 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  The direction of the density change also indicates that there's some kind of a vacuum cleaning operation going on.
5. Re:Very cool! by fatphil · 2013-01-04 10:42 · Score: 2
  
  I thought that could only occur within a dyson sphere?
  
  --
  Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Please let warp drive work in my lifetime by eksith · 2013-01-04 03:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

So I can at least get live pictures of things like this happening close-up at least before I die

--
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
1. Re:Please let warp drive work in my lifetime by Jetra · 2013-01-04 03:51 · Score: 2
  
  Technically, it happened 450 years ago, so who knows what it looks like now? (I know, I know, 1 light-year =/= a year. If someone can give me proper calculations, it would be appreciated)
2. Re:Please let warp drive work in my lifetime by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 04:06 · Score: 0
  
  Who cares about pictures, a warp flight means the Vulcans will show up. I can't wait.
3. Re:Please let warp drive work in my lifetime by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 04:13 · Score: 0
  
  If you approached this system at some significant percentage of the speed of light it would appear to be forming in fast-forward. :)
4. Re:Please let warp drive work in my lifetime by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 05:24 · Score: 0
  
  You may also get an interesting amount of blue shift.
Lucky bastards by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 03:13 · Score: 1

This is one hell of a discovery. I imagine that anyone that can observe this system will be planning to take a look pretty soon. How often do you get to see a solar system forming close enough to potentially study the planets and observe the gas flows?
Let me repeat: lucky fucking bastards.
sigh by wbr1 · 2013-01-04 03:54 · Score: 1, Informative

Astronomy has become such a dead subject on slashdot. Perhaps if someone discovered bitcoins, raspberry pis, or Windows 8 in another stolar system it will become popular again.

--
Silence is a state of mime.
1. Re:sigh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 05:31 · Score: 0
  
  how to get coverage:
  1 - classify this planet formation as secret
  2- release the info via wikileaks
No more science articles please. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 04:45 · Score: 0

Can we get back to movie and video game reviews? Or maybe an article we can use to bash MS/Apple/Amazon?

Science isn't fun to discuss. It's just a bunch of blah blah blah. Give us our old Slashdot back.
1. Re:No more science articles please. by SternisheFan · 2013-01-04 08:56 · Score: 2
  
  I swear, one day soon I'm going to submit 2 story titles with no story to them, and I bet that they'll get hundreds of replies... "Apple Patent Case" & "Windows 8".
original post by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 05:17 · Score: 0

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1301/
The original post, which includes the *real* image -not many pixels, but real ones!
SouthX
Observation by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 05:28 · Score: 0

I observed an unseen formation on Uranus.
1. Re:Observation by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 08:58 · Score: 0
  
  I observed an unseen formation on Uranus.
  Thank you. I've made a doctors appointment.
Take that Christians! The Big Bang Theory is true! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 14:54 · Score: 0

Subject says it all.