It’s likely that Jupiter-like planets’ origins root back to either the rapid collapse of a dense cloud or small rocky cores that glom together until the body is massive enough to accrete a gaseous envelope. Although these two competing theories are both viable, astronomers have, for the first time, seen the latter “core accretion” theory in action. By studying the exoplanet’s host star they’ve shed light on the composition of the planet’s rocky core. “Our results show that the formation of giant planets, as well as terrestrial planets like our own Earth, leaves subtle signatures in stellar atmospheres”, said lead author and PhD student Marcelo Tucci Maia from University of São Paulo, Brazil, in a press release. Maia and colleagues pointed the 3.5-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope toward the constellation Cygnus, in order to take a closer look at two Sun-like stars in the distant 16 Cyg triple-star system. Both stars, having formed together from the same gaseous disk over 10 billion years ago and having reached the same mass, are nearly solar twins. But only one star, 16 Cygni B, hosts a giant planet. By decomposing the light from the two stars into their wavelengths and looking at the difference between the The post Distant Stellar Atmospheres Shed Light on How Jupiter-like Planets Form has been published on Technology Org. Similar news or articles: Blocking Light Sheds New Light on Exoplanet Atmospheres Iowa State astronomer helps research team see misaligned planets in distant system Exoplanet Atmospheres Provide Clues to Solar System Formation #astronomy » see original post feedproxy.google/~r/TechnologyOrgSpaceAstronomyNews/~3/yh7t0oany_U/
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 09:25:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015