Birth of a New Giant Planet

Astronomers have captured the first direct images of a Giant Planet.To the untrained eye, the picture may appear to look like a blob surrounded by gas and dust, but astronomers say the image actually shows the birth of a gas giant planet, much like Jupiter in our solar system.

“So far, planet formation has mostly been a topic tackled by computer simulations,” project leader Sascha Quanz, an astronomer at ZTH Zurich in Switzerland, said in a statement. “If our discovery is indeed a forming planet, then for the first time scientists will be able to study the planet formation process and the interaction of a forming planet and its natal environment empirically at a very early stage.”

This is not the first time astronomers have paid attention to the star HD 100546, which is roughly 335 light-years from Earth. Previously another giant planet was found floating six times farther from the star than Earth orbits the sun. The planet that was photographed as it was born orbits the star ten times farther away than its sibling planet and a whopping 70 times the distance between the sun and Earth.

One of the main reasons astronomers are so certain the image depicts the birth of a planet is how it affirms the existing theory of how planets are formed. Each planetary system begins with a star that is created from large clumps of dust and gas. Once the star is formed, leftover gas and dust continues to circle the star until it comes together and forms a planet. Scientists believe this what is taking place in the image.

The picture also shows structures orbiting the star that scientists believe were formed as the baby planet and the other floating materials interacted. In addition, data collected by the research team has revealed that the materials surrounding the new planet have been heated. All of these observations fit perfect with the previously accepted theory of how planets are formed.

This is the first picture of its kind because Earth’s atmosphere causes any images taken of space to blur. However, the NACO optics system on the Very Large Telescope fixed this blurriness. In addition, the instrument was also able to block out distracting bright lights from the nearby star because it observes near-infrared wavelengths. This allowed the astronomers to be able see the forming planet.

Birth of a New Giant Planet

“Exoplanet research is one of the most exciting new frontiers in astronomy, and direct imaging of planets is still a new field, greatly benefiting from recent improvements in instruments and data analysis methods,” said Adam Amara who was part of the study. “In this research we used data analysis techniques developed for cosmological research, showing that cross-fertilization of ideas between fields can lead to extraordinary progress.”

Source:ScienceRecorder

When will the sun explode?

This is one of the most common questions thrown to astronomers and scientists. Many of us know that our Sun is a star and a star’s final moment is through a very powerful explosion known as a supernova. This is such a very dreadful scenario; however, the Sun will not experience the same fate as that of the other stars. But how is this possible if the Sun is also a star?

Mass is the deciding factor if a star will explode at the end of its life cycle. To qualify for a supernova ending, the Sun should have a mass that is four times its current mass. Fortunately, its mass will remain unchanged until its end. The Sun has a relatively low mass, thus it is classified as a dwarf star. If it is not going to explode, how it is going to end its life?

Astronomers and scientists predict that in about 5 billion years, the Sun will be depleted of its hydrogen fuel. By that time, the Sun’s gravity will still be powerful to enable the continuous fusion reactions in its core. However, the helium will be turned into carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. Although this is the very same process for a supernova explosion, the Sun does not have enough mass to support an explosive fusion reaction in its core. What will happen is that the Sun will just blow off its outer layers leaving a carbon rich white dwarf core. It will cool down over billions of years until it reaches the very same temperature as with the universe.

Other astronomers theorize that in about 5 billion years, when the Sun has depleted its hydrogen fuel, other gases will be out of control, especially the helium, which shall make all objects here on Earth to melt down and burn.

To read more interesting topics about planets Visit here.

Planet

What are planets?


A “planet” is an object in orbit around the Sun that is large enough (massive enough) to have its self-gravity pull itself into a round (or nearly round) shape. In addition a “planet” orbits in a clear path around the Sun – there are no other bodies in its path that it must sweep up as it goes around the Sun. Source: iau.org

Solar System consist of the sun together with the nine planets and all other celestial bodies that orbit the sun.

The sun is located in the center of the Solar System.The nine planets that revolves around the sun are  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Image:tx.english-ch.com
Easy ways to remember the order of the planets
From enchantedlearning.com i learned this to memorise the order of the planets."My Very Easy Method Just Simplifies Us Naming Planets" The first letter of each of these words represents a planet - in the correct order. 


Solar system is made up of two parts:
The Inner Solar system contains the inner planets and the Outer Solar system contains the outer planets.


The inner planets( Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars)are relatively small  and orbit closer to the sun.
The outer planets(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto-a dwarf planet)are mostly huge,gaseous and orbit far from the sun.