Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2022

27 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022 ASTRO PUBLISHING lion years holds true, this exoplanet could be one of the youngest ever detected. Further study is needed, and scientists hope that upcoming observations with the James Webb Space Telescope will confirm the planet’s presence. “The best way to study planet for- mation is to observe planets while they’re forming. We are living in a very exciting time when this hap- pens thanks to powerful telescopes, such as ALMA and JWST,” said Jae- han Bae, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and the lead author of the paper. The AS 209 system has been of interest to scientists working in the ALMA MAPS — Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales — collabora- tion for more than five years due to the presence of seven nested rings, which scientists believed to be as- sociated with ongoing planet for- mation. The new results provide fur- ther evidence of planet formation around the young star. Scientists have long suspected the presence of circumplanetary disks around exoplanets, but until re- cently were unable to prove it. In 2019, ALMA scientists made the first-ever detection of a circumplan- etary, moon-forming disk while ob- serving the young exoplanet PDS 70c, and confirmed the find in 2021. The new observations of gas in a circumplanetary disk at AS 209 may shed further light on the de- velopment of planetary atmos- pheres and the processes by which moons are formed. S cientists studying the young star AS 209 have detected gas in a circumplanetary disk for the first time, which suggests the star system may be harboring a very young Jupiter-mass planet. Sci- ence images from the research show (right) blob-like emissions of light coming from otherwise empty gaps in the highly-structured, seven-ring disk (left). [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Bae (U. Florida)] In the background, artist impression of the circumplanetary disk discovered in 2021 around a young planet in the PDS 70 star system. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/ NRAO), S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)] !