Images released by NASA scientists on Monday show the formation of a gas giant. NASA reported that “AB Aurigae b” is the newest planet forming. They project that the planet is larger than Jupiter nine times and orbits the host star 8.6 billion miles away from the host star.
Nature astronomy published the images in a “peer-reviewed study” of NASA’s planet captured by the Subaru and Hubble space telescopes.
“There are not many planets embedded in … the birth disk formed have been imaged before,” Kellen Lawson said.
“[AB Aurigae] is arguably only the second case of this ever happening – the other one being PDS 70, which is a much more evolved system. So this gives us a chance to study at this very early stage. Of planet formation directly.”
The scientists estimate that “AB Auriage b is 500 light-years far from the earth”. According to them, identifying the planet was not easy. The advanced telescope played a major role in capturing the images.
“Distinguishing between infant planets and complex disk features unrelated to planets is very difficult,” said Lawson.
However, he added that they could differentiate the planet from other planets by observing the solar grid at “diverse light wavelengths” and uncovering the planet’s brightness.
Scientists have different theories on the formation of the gas giant. A scholar at the University of Arizona explains the “core accretion,” a dominant theory.
He explained that “ the model “starts with little rock pebbles sticking to each other and gradually getting bigger. when these rocks become massive enough, there is enough gravity to start attracting gas.”
According to NASA, researchers believe the planet formed using “disk instability” because it is far away from the host star.
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