2023-07-27 19:00:00
For the first time in the history of astronomy, researchers have observed two planets located at the same distance from their sun. A discovery that confirms a 20-year-old theory.
It is a singularity that we knew was possible. Now we have proof of its existence. While the Universe responds to strict laws and a certain order, a discovery comes to contradict the principle of planets distant from each other which revolve solitarily around their sun. In Spain, astrophysicist Olga Bolsalobre-Ruza and her team from the University of Madrid think they have spotted for the first time two planets that revolve around their star in the same orbit. As if the Earth had a twin sister located at the same distance from the sun and describing the same ellipse around it.
According to their study published in the magazine Astrophysics and Astronomy in this month of July, this curiosity was located in the PDS-70 system located 370 light years from us. The direct images that were captured clearly show the presence of two celestial bodies located equidistant from their star and orbiting on the same plane.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) /Balsalobre-Ruza
A delicate balance of forces
Until now, this phenomenon existed only in the form of equations: “Two decades ago, it was predicted in theory that pairs of planets of similar mass might share the same orbit around their star, the planets say trojan or coorbital. For the first time, we have found evidence in favor of this, ”rejoices Olga Bolsalobre-Ruza in commentary on her study.
For this situation to be possible, the two planets must be placed at very precise places called “Lagrange points” where the gravitational force of the star is balanced with the centripetal force caused by the rotation in orbit. This is also what explains why the two bodies do not collide.
In reality, Jupiter and even the Earth share their orbit with some Trojan asteroids, but we had never observed two planets in this case. “Who might imagine two worlds that share the length of the year and the same conditions of habitability? Our work is the first proof that this kind of world might exist”, is surprised the Spanish astrophysicist.
A solar system in formation
It must be said that PDS-70 never disappoints scientists. This system has the distinction of being extremely young and the planets that compose it are in the process of forming. Observing what happens there is no more or less like looking at a childhood photo of our own solar system. A gold mine to understand the evolution of our sun and its 8 planets. It is also there that the first exoplanets being assembled were discovered. In July 2021, the very first circumplanetary disk was also spotted there, a vast cloud of dust that will one day aggregate to form a moon.
It’s a bit the same case with the planet PDS-70b, because its twin planet (the one that shares its orbit) is not really a planet for the moment but a concentration of dust, a protoplanet. The Madrid researchers have agreed to meet in 2026 to observe this area once more and observe its evolution. One theory claims that in our solar system, Jupiter was once closer to the sun and migrated away, in part due to its Trojan asteroids. If PDS-70b suffers the same fate then Jupiter’s story might be confirmed.
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