Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2023

16 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2023 ASTRO PUBLISHING pelling chemical evidence to date of the formation of protoplanets. The discovery will provide astronomers with an alternate method for de- tecting and characterizing proto- planets when direct observations or imaging are not possible. HD 169142 is a young star located in the con- stellation Sagittarius that is of signif- icant interest to astronomers due to by ALMA Observatory Nicolás Lira S cientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the pro- toplanetary disk around a young star have discovered the most com- A chemical may help detect and confirm protoplanets