Protoplanetary Disk: Study Looks At Light For Clues To Exoplanet Mysteries

By comparing the time it took for the light from the young star to reach earth and then the subsequent "echo" from the light that ricocheted off the edge of the protoplanetary disk, and using the speed of light as a constant, scientists were able to estimate the distance of the gap between the star and the surrounding disk. Astronomers have used the same technique to measure the accretion disk of supermassive black holes. An accretion disk contains the material that is being drawn into the gravitational pull of a black hole. This is the first time photo-reverberation has been used in the study of a protoplanetary disk.

As well as searching for earth-like planets, researchers want to find out more about so-called "hot Jupiters." In our solar system, Jupiter is a large planet composed mostly of hydrogen and helium gases – hence the label "gas giant" – but it is also very cold as compared to earth since it orbits the sun in the outer solar system. In other solar systems, astronomers have observed gas giants that orbit much closer to their own stars, making them much hotter. As reported in the Washington Post, one such hot Jupiter, dubbed KELT-fAb, was recently discovered to orbit a three star system.

The ALMA image shows a gap in the disk at about the same distance from the star known as TW Hydrae as the Earth is from our own sun. Will the exoplanet that is evolving become a rocky planet like earth or a mysterious hot Jupiter? Scientists hope that further study will yield more clues on the forces at play in the evolution of a protoplanetary disk.

[Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech]