Wish upon a star: Did we just find a new planet?

[gwillybj]

Wish upon a star: Did we just find a new planet?
By Colette Bennett
updated 6:14 PM EST, Fri March 01, 2013

•Astronomers have spotted something special in the HD 100546 system
•Could change the future of planet formation study
 
Space fanatics who get excited about major rumbles in the universe may have just hit the jackpot. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) reports that astronomers have spotted what could be the first direct observation of the birth of a new planet.

This exciting discovery cropped up in the gas and dust that lies around the outer regions of the system that houses young star HD 100546, which is located 335 light-years from Earth. While the information can't be confirmed just yet, it could pave the way for further research about planet formation in a way that astronomers have never had access to before.

So how does a new planet form? Well, the theory is that by getting hold of some of the dust and gas left behind after the formation of a star, you can rustle up a planet.

Of course, it is possible that the team could be mistaking what they've seen for something else, so they have to rule out other possibilities before yelling to the stars that it's time to welcome a new planetary body. But they're hard at work now doing just that. According to Sascha Quanz, the project team leader at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the candidate planet could have a lot in common with Jupiter. He says on the ESO's website that up to now, planet formation is something that he and his team could only visualize using the help of a computer.

“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,” Quanz says.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/03/01/far-out-did-we-just-find-new-planet?hpt=hln10_3