First-ever Detection of Gas in a Circumplanetary Disk

The first such finding of gas in a Circumplanetary disc was made by researchers utilising the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and collaborators at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Additionally, the discovery points to the existence of a juvenile exoplanet. The Astrophysical Journal Letters publishes the study’s findings.

Around newborn planets, a collection of gas, dust, and debris is called a Circumplanetary disc. These discs produce moons and other rocky satellites and regulate the development of young, massive planets. The origin of our own solar system, as well as that of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, which researchers believe formed in a Circumplanetary disc of Jupiter some 4.5 billion years ago, may be better understood by looking at these discs in their early phases. In the gas around AS 209, a young star about 395 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus, researchers saw a blob of radiated light in the centre of a gap that was otherwise empty. As a result, the Circumplanetary disc encircling a candidate planet with a mass similar to Jupiter was discovered.

Scientists are watching the system closely, both because of the planet’s distance from its star and the star’s age. The exoplanet defies known ideas of planet formation since it lies 18.59 billion miles, or more than 200 astronomical units, from its home star. This exoplanet may be among the youngest ever discovered if the host star’s projected age of just 1.6 million years is accurate. Future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope are expected to confirm the planet’s existence, and further research is still needed.

Exoplanets may have Circumplanetary discs around them, as scientists have long hypothesised, but they have been unable to demonstrate this until lately. While analysing the young exoplanet PDS 70c in 2019, ALMA researchers made the first-ever observation of a, moon-forming disc. The discovery was later verified in 2021. The newly discovered gas in a disc at AS 209 may provide more insight into the formation of planetary atmospheres and moons.