A group of Chilean scientists from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) and the Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and Related Technologies CATA have made an important discovery in the Antofagasta region of Chile. Astronomers have identified two potential Saturn-like planets that are in the process of forming just over 300 light-years away from Earth..
The discovery was made thanks to information collected by the ALMA radio telescope (Atacama Large Millimeter-Submillimeter Array) by analyzing data from the protoplanetary disk HD163296.
The research work was led by Juan Garrido-Deutelmoser, a Master’s student in Astronomy from the Catholic University, along with academics Viviana Guzmán and Cristobal Petrovich. Information regarding the group has been published in the latest edition of the magazine The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A crescent of cosmic dust
Cristobal Petrovich, astronomer at the UC Institute of Astrophysics and researcher at the CATA Astrophysics Center, has explained that Protoplanetary disks are large accumulations of gas and cosmic dust that revolve around young stars and are the place where the planets that orbit around them are formed..
“These two possible worlds, found in the HD 163269 Disc, give a new personality to this area of the cosmos, since, together with another pair of planets, which are on the outer edge of the disc, they form a System where all the orbits are perfectly synchronized. This “beautiful chord” comes from the effect that the disk produces on the movement of the planets and shows us the way in which the planets migrate towards their parent star,” added Petrovich.
Following these results, astronomers will investigate other tracers to confirm the presence of these planets. “The good news is that thanks to this research we now know exactly where and how to look for them.”, this is confirmed by Juan Garrido-Deutelmoser, student of the master’s degree in astronomy at the Catholic University and first author of the research.
The scientific team consisted of Juan Garrido-Deutelmoser, PUC-CATA academics Viviana Guzman and Christopher Petrovich. They were joined by Carolina Charalambous from the University of Namur, and Ke Zhang from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both Guzmán and Zhang were responsible for the interpretation of the ALMA telescope observations.