| Exoplanetary Scratchpad |
One of the two youngest stars (about a million years old) detected with evidence for a planet-forming circumstellar disk, located 450 ly away. Has an outer dust disk (which would envelop the Solar System) and a thin inner dust disk (which would fit inside Mercury's orbit). The inner disk is somewhat lopsided. Planet b was later detected, the youngest and first direct photograph of a protoplanet. It is a giant planet orbiting at Uranus-like distances and appears as a blue dot. It is about 1,000C and surrounded by a red structure about 500C, which could be material colliding into the protoplanet or being ejected from it. Its mass, and planetary status, still needs to be determined. Hydrogen was found to be heated to 10,000C, which implies that it is falling onto the surface of a planet no more than 10 times Jupiter's mass. Two other unconfirmed planets show no signs of glowing hydrogen, so are most likely completely formed, or partially masked by intervening clouds of dust. One of these planets is slightly further out than the confirmed one.
My Thoughts[]
I really don't get why they're talking about the first photo of baby exoplanets now, when these were photoed years ago. Is this just a more convincing picture now? Viewed at a different wavelength? Are these planets further in than the previous ones? Animation seems to show three planets, but only 1 exists at the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia.
Web Pages[]
LkCa 15 System In the News[]
Debris Disk "Lanes" Detected (Nov 2007)[]
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071129-baby-solar-systems.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/uom-yss112907.php
Inner Disk Edge is Lopsided (Feb 2011)[]
Planet b Discovered and Imaged (Nov 2011)[]
- http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/birth-youngest-planet-images-keck-observatory-hawaii/story?id=14778712#.TwO0bPlEIqN
- http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/formingplanet/
- http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/132254873.html
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20111019/us-sci-young-planet/
- http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1110/20lkca/
- http://keckobservatory.org/news/first_close-up_view_of_a_planet_being_formed/
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/20/youngest-planet-ever-found-lkca15b
- http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1019/How-are-planets-born-LkCa-15-could-give-scientists-first-ever-peek.
- http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-baby-exoplanet-keck-art-111019.html
- http://www.space.com/13328-youngest-alien-planet-exoplanet-formation.html
Stars with Dusty Disks Should Have Earth-Like Worlds (2012)[]
- See LkCa 15 System, HL Tau System, Eta Corvi System
Photo Taken (Mar 2015)[]
- http://uanews.org/story/researchers-capture-first-photo-of-planet-in-the-making
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/glimpse-baby-planet-shows-what-expect-when-star-expecting?tgt=nr
- http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2015/11/planet-formation-caught-act
- http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2015/11/19/forming-planet-observed-for-first-time-.html
- http://www.space.com/31146-alien-planet-formation-photographed.html
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28503-baby-photos-of-distant-planet-are-first-to-capture-formation/
- http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-planets-being-born-20151118-story.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/18/scientists-caught-a-new-planet-forming-for-the-first-time-ever/
- http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/18/scientists-watch-cosmic-dust-transform-into-newborn-planet
- http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/this-massive-exoplanet-is-being-born-right-now-151118.htm