In the new study, an international team of scientists led by Stefan Kraus from the University of Exeter, UK, has gained valuable insights that solve an important scientific problem in one of the most popular theories of planet formation.
One of the central problems of the theory of planet formation from the matter of a gas-dust disk of a young star is the problem of forming lumps of material the size of an asteroid from gas and dust: according to calculations, small particles must move towards the parent star, reach it and be destroyed before they have time to coalesce and grow to the size of planetesimals.
In this new study, astronomers observed the star V1247 Orion, a young, hot star surrounded by a dynamic ring of gas and dust. The team, using the ALMA radio observatory, obtained a detailed image of this star and the surrounding dusty disk, which consists of two parts: an inner annular part and an outer crescent-shaped part (see photo).
The region between the “ring” and “crescent”, which is a dark stripe, presumably follows the trajectory of the young planet, which “cuts out” a wide stripe in the disk of the young star. When the planet moves in orbit, areas of increased pressure are formed on both sides of it, just as waves are formed on both sides of a ship going through the sea. Large asteroids and planetesimals can form in these high-pressure areas (so-called "dust traps"), in which dust and gas can remain for many millions of years, Kraus and his team believe.
The study is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.