Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2018

46 SPACE CHRONICLES by ESO A stronomers led by a group at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany have captured a spectacu- lar snapshot of planetary formation around the young dwarf star PDS 70. By using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) — one of the most powerful planet- hunting instruments in existence — the international team has made the first robust detection of a young planet, named PDS 70b, cleaving a path through the planet-forming material surrounding the young star. The SPHERE instrument also enabled the team to measure the brightness First confirmed image of newborn planet caught with ESO’s VLT SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2018 T his spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the centre of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. [ESO/A. Müller et al.]