It is always nice to hear and reports about new discoveries, especially in the universe. It is always a massive achievement for mankind when those kinds of events happen. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently found something in the atmosphere of the Red Planet with the help of their robots that were placed there.
According to the report, mankind is definitely on the right path of the research since they have found some organisms that would prove ancient life on the said planet. Although Mars is still, of course, inhabitable, this is because of how much radiation it is getting from the outer space. Group of astronomers made another recent discovery and claims to have found not just one but three baby planets in the solar system.
Three Baby Planets Found
The world was basically surprised when astronomers and other experts from NASA agreed to not consider Pluto a planet anymore. However, it will definitely be a much of a bigger surprise when people find out about any other planets that are basically out there waiting to be discovered. Just like the three baby planets that was found within the constellation of Sagittarius. The said baby planets are said to be found orbiting a star that is 330 light-years away from the Earth.
This is the discovery of the very first planet of the advanced telescope in Chile known as the Atcama Large Millimeter Array or ALMA, which was made to understand and discover more protoplanetary discs. In fact, two different teams of astronomers have made the same discovery and were both published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. According to the leader of one of the studies from the University of Michigan, Richard Teague, it is incredibly difficult to discovery planets at this particular age, especially if they cannot find enough evidence of them actually still existing.
He even explained how planets are basically surrounded by gas and dust and it will try and penetrate into the atmosphere that could prevent them from growing even further. Teague also mentioned that the traditional methods of finding exoplanets simply does not work when it comes to discovering baby planets that are basically still growing. During the ancient times, astronomers try to look for rings in the dust in the outer space to be able to find a planet, but it turns out that this is not accurate.
No one actually knows how planets form and what are its step by step stages, so when not just one, but two research teams have made the same discovery, it is definitely something to watch out for. According to the findings, the said baby planets are about the same mass as Jupiter, but that could still be changed.
They are currently orbiting a star that is about four million years old. This discovery is said to be such a huge help for astronomers since they will now be able to watch and study the said baby planets as they grow, but it will definitely be too far from being easy since it might take millions of years to wait.
ALMA satellites antennas in Chile
What Makes A Planet
It is so easy for people to Identify a planet because they could easily point out photos of the already known planets such as Jupiter, Mars and the Earth of course, but not everyone could actually define it. In 2006, astronomers from the International Astronomical Union, have decided that the definition of a planet is a heavenly body that orbits the sun, rounded because of the sufficient mass, is not a satellite or a moon of another planet and finally, no debris surrounding its orbit.
This is basically one of the main reasons why Pluto is no longer a planet. The International Astronomical Union even started referring to it as a “dwarf planet”, a term annotated to classify it.
This is because Pluto didn’t fit into the category from the definition that says it has cleared debris on its orbit. Some astronomers believe that there are actually hundreds of dwarf planets out there that are still waiting to be discovered.
There are also what they call as exoplanets, or the planets that are basically known to be planets that are found out of the solar system, as well as protoplanets, which are said to be the planets that are orbiting the star and that is getting ready to be a planet.