Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.
Astronomers first turned their attention to the young star in 2014 when it unexpectedly brightened by about 20 times its usual magnitude. Observations with the VLT instrument Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch observations were taken shortly after this outburst of brightness, with the instrument able to catch an unprecedented level of detail in the system.
This showed material orbiting V960 Mon is forming a series of intricate spiral arms that stretch for distances greater than the entire V960 Mon appears as a golden cloud with a bird-like shape in images from the VLT the blue glow of gas seen by ALMAThis finding was followed up when astronomers observed V960 Mon with ALMA.
"With ALMA, it became apparent that the spiral arms are undergoing fragmentation, resulting in the formation of clumps with masses akin to those of planets," Zurlo said.Astronomers suggest two avenues that gas giant planets could take to form. The first is core accretion, which sees dust grains gather to cover a rocky inner core. The second is gravitational instability, in which over-dense patches of a protoplanetary disk of gas and dust around a star collapse.
Scientists have seen hints at core accretion before, but the combined images from ALMA and SPHERE give astronomers a hint at the first observational evidence for this latter gas giant formation mechanism. "No one had ever seen a real observation of gravitational instability happening at planetary scales — until now," researcher leader and University of Santiago, Chile, scientist Philipp Weber said.
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Unusual galaxy cluster is an island of tranquility in the chaotic early universeRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter sciencef1rst.
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