{"id":797415,"date":"2025-07-23T07:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797415"},"modified":"2025-07-23T07:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:26:17","slug":"newborn-planet-spotted-sculpting-a-spiral-around-its-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797415","title":{"rendered":"Newborn planet spotted sculpting a spiral around its star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_516507\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-516507\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-516507\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View larger. | The image to the left, taken with ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a possible newborn planet (circled) around the young star HD 135344B, located around 440 light-years away. The image to the right is a combination of previous observations, which did not find this sign of a planetary companion.\u00a0Image via ESO\/ F. Maio et al.\/ T. Stolker et al.\/ ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)\/ N. van der Marel et al.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ESO published this original story on July 21, 2025. Edits by EarthSky<\/p>\n<h3>Newborn planet spotted sculpting a spiral around its star<\/h3>\n<p>Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disk with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a spiral disk.<\/p>\n<p>Francesco Maio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this study, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We will never witness the formation of Earth, but here, around a young star 440 light-years away, we may be watching a planet come into existence in real time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The peer-reviewed journal <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics<\/em> published the study on July 21, 2025.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zooming into the young star HD 135344B and its planet candidate\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J6SgH5LsG2I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><em>This video zooms into the young star HD 135344B, which has been found to have a potential newborn planet in its orbit. Video via ESO\/ L. Cal\u00e7ada\/ N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)\/ VMC Survey\/ Digitized Sky Survey 2\/ ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)\/ N. van der Marel et al.\/ T. Stolker et al.\/ F. Maio et al.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>A planet in the making<\/h3>\n<p>The potential planet in the making was detected around the star HD 135344B, within a disk of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disk. The budding planet is estimated to be twice the size of Jupiter and as far from its host star as Neptune is from our sun. It has been observed shaping its surroundings within the protoplanetary disk as it grows into a fully formed planet. <\/p>\n<p>Protoplanetary disks have been observed around other young stars, and they often display intricate patterns, such as rings, gaps or spirals. Astronomers have long predicted that these structures are caused by baby planets, which sweep up material as they orbit around their parent star. But, until now, they had not caught one of these planetary sculptors in the act.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_516513\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-516513\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt.jpg\" alt=\"On a black background, a light blue swirl around a dark center, with a larger orange swirl around the blue.\" width=\"650\" height=\"650\" class=\"size-full wp-image-516513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt.jpg 650w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/07\/protoplanetary-disk-spiral-eso-vlt-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-516513\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View larger. | This image shows the dusty disk around the young star HD 135344B. It\u2019s a combination of data taken with 2 different facilities: the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument of ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope in red, and the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in orange and blue. These images were released in 2016 and 2015 respectively, and didn\u2019t show evidence for a planet in this disk, which the new study has now revealed. Image via ESO\/ T. Stolker et al.\/ ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)\/ N. van der Marel et al.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Newborn planet hiding all along?<\/h3>\n<p>In the case of HD 135344B\u2019s disk, swirling spiral arms had previously been detected by another team of astronomers using SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), an instrument on ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope. However, none of the previous observations of this system found proof of a planet forming within the disk. <\/p>\n<p>Now, with observations from the Very Large Telescope\u2019s new Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument, the researchers say they may have found their prime suspect. The team spotted the planet candidate right at the base of one of the disk\u2019s spiral arms, exactly where theory had predicted they might find the planet responsible for carving such a pattern. <\/p>\n<p>Maio explained: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What makes this detection potentially a turning point is that, unlike many previous observations, we are able to directly detect the signal of the protoplanet, which is still highly embedded in the disk. This gives us a much higher level of confidence in the planet\u2019s existence, as we\u2019re observing the planet\u2019s own light.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Bottom line: New observations have revealed what appears to be a newborn planet 440 light-years away, sculpting intricate spiral arms in the disk of gas and dust around its young parent star.<\/p>\n<p>Via ESO<\/p>\n<p>Source: Unveiling a protoplanet candidate embedded in the HD 135344B disk with VLT\/ERIS<\/p>\n<p>Read more: Witnessing a solar system\u2019s dawn, for the 1st time<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>EarthSky Voices<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Members of the EarthSky community &#8211; including scientists, as well as science and nature writers from across the globe &#8211; weigh in on what&#8217;s important to them.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/newborn-planet-spotted-sculpting-a-spiral-around-its-star\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View larger. | The image to the left, taken with ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a possible newborn planet (circled) around the young star HD 135344B, located around 440&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":797416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/797416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}