Astronomers may have found a rare “sibling” that shares the same orbit of a Jupiter-like planet around a young star
. Researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes, or ALMA, in Chile to observe the PDS 70 system, located 370 light-years away in the Centaurus constellation. Two Jupiter-like planets, known as PDS 70b and PDS 70c, are already known to orbit the star.But astronomers also spied a cloud of debris within the orbital path of PDS 70b, which could represent the building blocks of a new planet that is actively forming or already formed.
’s Lucy mission, launched in October 2021, will be the first to study these never-before-seen asteroids up close. Evidence for Trojans beyond our solar system — specifically Trojan planets — has been sparse until now. “Exotrojans have so far been like unicorns: they are allowed to exist by theory but no one has ever detected them,” said study coauthor Jorge Lillo-Box, a researcher at the Centre for Astrobiology, in a statement.
. In order to confirm the discovery of a true Trojan world, the researchers will have to wait until after 2026, when they can use ALMA to see just how far PDS 70b and the debris cloud have progressed in their long orbital period around the star. “This would be a breakthrough in the exoplanetary field,” Balsalobre-Ruza said.
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