This Very Large Telescope Snapped an Exoplanet’s Baby Photos
by Theresa Machemer/Smithsonianmag.com
Congratulations, it’s a gas giant! An international team of astronomers has captured the telltale signs of the birth of an exoplanet for the first time.
The fiery image shows a swirl of dust and gas near the young star AB Aurigae, located in the Auriga constellation that’s visible to stargazers in the northern hemisphere in winter. Storms of thick dust and gas around a young star are prime real estate for planets to form, and previous observations saw hints that formation had started. In 2019 and early 2020, astronomer Anthony Boccaletti of PSL University in Paris led an international team at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to capture what may be the first photograph of exoplanet formation. Their results published this month in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“Here, in this particular case, we don’t see the planet,” Boccaletti tells Becky Ferreira at Vice. “We see the structure that the planet produces on the spiral—this is what we call a twist.”
The twist is a thick point in the yellow spiral that’s vaguely lightning-bolt or S-shaped, located near the center of the photograph
Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.
She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.
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