Scientists spy two - or maybe three - planets in the process of being born
For the first time, scientists have witnessed planets being born. In late 2011, two of them finally found a possible protoplanet in the area around LkCa 15, a star estimated to be a mere 2 million years old. Using NRM, the team identified two bodies — dubbed LkCa 15b and LkCa 15c — that moved in stable orbits around the star. LkCa 15b is about 15 times farther from its star than Earth is from the sun, and LkCa 15c’s orbit is about two Earth-sun distances beyond that. In an essay that accompanies the study, Princeton astrophysicist Zhauhuan Zhu wrote that the observing techniques Sallum’s team used should make it possible for scientists to find nascent planets that were previously invisible because they were too far away or masked by too much dust.
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