Australian Astronomers Spot Five Baby Planets Using Groundbreaking Method
(MENAFN) Australian scientists have played a leading role in a major international research initiative that has identified five newly forming planets—some of the youngest ever found—thanks to a groundbreaking method, according to Monash University on Wednesday.
The new approach, created by a team at Monash University, uses sophisticated imaging to detect planets previously hidden within the dense gas and dust of emerging solar systems, according to a university press release published via a news agency.
As part of the worldwide exoALMA project, the planets were discovered using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope in Chile. Instead of relying on visible light to locate planets, exoALMA focuses on the faint disruptions that forming planets cause in the nearby gas and dust, the release noted.
"It's like trying to spot a fish by looking for ripples in a pond, rather than trying to see the fish itself," remarked Monash astrophysicist Associate Professor Christophe Pinte, who led the project and spent seven years developing the technique.
This method enables researchers to identify planets that are only a few million years old—about 1,000 times younger than Earth—providing valuable insight into the earliest phases of planetary development. The results are detailed in 17 papers published in a special issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, with additional publications expected.
Monash Professor Daniel Price, who helped develop the technique, described the discovery as a significant advancement in the study of how planets originate.
"We have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets to date, but they are all mature systems, leaving us with little understanding of how they formed or why they differ so drastically from our own solar system," Price stated.
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