A ring of debris orbiting a neighboring star could contain vital clues about how the Earth formed millions of years ago
A team of American astronomers has captured what appears to be the formation of a new planetary system, providing a vital clue to the deep, dark history of Earth.
Directed by Meredith MacGregor of the University of Colorado, the team photographed nearby star HD 53143 with millimeter wavelengths, using the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA), a collection of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
The results did not look like what they expected, with calculations showing a sophisticated disk of face debris surrounding the star, the most complicated of its kind ever seen.
“Until now, scientists have never seen a disk of debris with such a complicated structure,” said Professor MacGregor, who also works as an assistant at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) and the Department of Astrophysics. Planetary (APS).
He noted that the disk of debris was not just a collection of dust and rocks floating in space, but rather a historical record of the beginnings of planetary formation, providing a window on how the Earth itself could have evolved over time. of time.
“We cannot directly study the formation of the Earth and the solar system, but we can study other systems that look similar, but younger than ours.
“It’s a bit like looking back in time … debris disks are the fossil records of planet formation, and this new result is confirmation that there is so much more to learn from these systems … than “Knowledge can provide insight into the complex dynamics of young people. Stellar systems similar to our own solar system.”
HD 53143 is located in the constellation of Carina, about 59.8 light-years from Earth, and was first discovered in 2006.
It is estimated to be about 1 billion years old, significantly younger than our sun, but about twice its size.
Presenting the results of the research at the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week in Pasadena, California, Professor MacGregor noted that exoplanets may be influencing the unusual shape of the ring.
“In general, we don’t expect disks to be very eccentric unless something, like a planet, sculpts them and forces them to be eccentric,” Dr. MacGregor said.
“Without this force, orbits tend to circulate, like what we see in our own Solar System.”