Finding young planets in our galaxy is still very much at the forefront of science.
But with the help of the world's most expensive ground-based telescope, two teams of astronomers are convinced they've found not one, but three baby planets.
SEE ALSO:What to Do About the Space Junk Crisis We CreatedThe young planets orbit a star called HD 163296, which is located about 330 million light years away from us in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer).
It's the first time the $1.4 billion Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope has discovered new planets, thanks to a special technique to help hunt them down.
Both teams of astronomers looked to unusual patterns in the flow of gas within a planet-forming disc around a young star.
They studied the spread of carbon monoxide within the disc, observing the wavelengths of light emitted from molecules of the gas, which revealed how it was moving about. Any strange movements in the flow of the gas were a sign that it was in contact with a massive object.
"We looked at the localised, small-scale motion of gas in the star’s protoplanetary disc," Richard Teague, an astronomer from the University of Michigan and author of one of the two papers on the discovery, explained in a statement online.
"This entirely new approach could uncover some of the youngest planets in our galaxy, all thanks to the high-resolution images from ALMA."
Credit: ESO, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); PinteA team led by Teague found two planets located 12 billion and 21 billion kilometres from the star. While another team, led by Christophe Pinte of Australia's Monash University, identified a planet situated 39 billion kilometres from the star.
"Measuring the flow of gas within a protoplanetary disc gives us much more certainty that planets are present around a young star," Pinte added.
"This technique offers a promising new direction to understand how planetary systems form."
(责任编辑：探索)
Teacher absolutely nails it with new homework policy
No, Apple isn't spying on your iPhone call history
Tom Hanks sent a fan a typewriter as a thank you present
'White Nonsense Roundup' is here to take on racist Facebook postsThis 'sh*tpost' bot makes terrible memes so you don't have to17 questions you can answer if you're a good communicator
Whether you regularly speak in public and write online, or you mostly express yourself over email, b
...[详细]White House, meet white nationalist: Steve Bannon gets top Trump job
The appointment of Steve Bannon as White House chief strategist isn't exactly a surprise. SEE ALSO:T
...[详细]'White Nonsense Roundup' is here to take on racist Facebook posts
When another #AllLivesMatter post goes up, the White Nonsense Roundup steps in.SEE ALSO:Muslim man v
...[详细]A sexy Kenny G meme war is what the internet does best
Kenny G's hands are for one thing and one thing only: playing his super seductive, smooth jazz sax. 。
...[详细]One of the first Apple computers ever made is currently up for auction.A rare "Celebration" Apple-1
...[详细]Apple's finally admitting some iPhone 6 Pluses get 'Touch Disease'
After months of turning a blind eye to "Touch Disease", Apple has created a worldwide repair program
...[详细]With Snapchat's Spectacle glasses taking the tech world by storm, you may have missed some of this w
...[详细]Your money after Trump: Stick to your plan
No outcome is ever truly assured, as everyone in America now knows. We can’t predict what our
...[详细]U.S. government issues warning on McDonald's recalled wearable devices
Last week's McDonald's debacle, which saw the fast food giant forced to recall its first wearable tr
...[详细]8th grader's Spotify playlist gets him in big trouble with mom
There are some things better kept off mom's radar, and this 8th grader learned that lesson the hard
...[详细]