Astronomers have discovered the presence of a disk around a planet beyond our solar system for the first time.
By using the high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an international partner, the scientists uncovered the circumplanetary disk which surrounds the exoplanet PDS 70c.
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PDS 70c is one of two giant, “Jupiter-like” planets orbiting a star almost 400 light-years away, according to a statement released by ESO on Thursday.
PDS70c and PDS 70b were discovered in 2019 and 2019, respectively, using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). PDS 70b does not show “clear evidence” of a circumplanetary disk.
While there had been signs of such a “moon-forming” region…