Some stars, forming on planets, never grow up and lose their “Peter Pan” discs

If you buy links to our articles, the future and its syndicate partners can earn a commission.

The planet formation in terms of low-mass stars can suffer from Peter Pan syndrome. While earlier observations and models have pointed out that a hard drive should be “fully grown” of planetary building blocks – after burning its worldwide material – in about 10 million years a new child on the block proves that they are wrong and Measure to weigh up. around 30 million years.

With the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (Alma), astronomers have examined one of the previously identified Peter Pan discs around a star with a low mass. But instead of seeing a hard drive that had come out of the planet formation, they found a disc that is rich in hydrocarbons, with chemical signatures that have never been seen in a pane that has never been dated so. This longer lifespan could have an important effect on planet formation, at least by stars with a low mass.

“A long-lasting hard drive can offer more time for the construction of massive nuclei,” Feng Long, researcher at the laboratory and planetary laboratory of the University of Arizona and first author of the new period, published in The astrophysical journal lettersSpace.com announced by e -mail. “Therefore, huge planets can be formed before the hard drive is derived.”

I’m not growing up!

According to a star, remaining dust and gas forms to create a material -rich reservoir known as A Protoplanetary hard drive. Collisions of material, both from the gas and stabilized, trigger the planet formation process. The observations of discs in the past two decades have shown that most of them have no more petrol in the first 10 million years and have left sticks and chunks to build worlds.

In 2020, researchers who work together with the Disk Detek Detective Citizen Science project identified four stars with a low mass than aligning what they organize as ‘referred to as’.Peter Pan Disks‘.

“We described them as” never growing up “because they maintained their original hard drive long after the expected time frame for primeval discs to have replaced,” said Steven Silverberg, the current project manager of Disk -Detective, to Space.com E -mail. Silverburg, which is not part of the new research, examines young stars with a low mass and protoplanetary windows.

According to Silverburg and his colleagues, Peter Disks have four main qualities: they rotate around a star with a low mass, have an age of no less than 20 million years, shine brightly in the infrared and their signature shows signs of warm gas. There are currently only nine hard drives that meet this qualification.

However, earlier observations only showed that there was a hard drive with tracks. Further observations were required to determine whether they have reservations with cold material and estimate their estimates Dust and gas content.

Long and their colleagues made the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from NASA one of these discs around the Star Wise J044634.16–262756.1b, which is referred to as J0446b. JWST was able to look into the dusty material and to identify a wealth of molecules that have never been seen in such an old hard drive. According to the Long, the improved sensitivity of JWST enables molecules to be selected that may be too weak to be noticed by older instruments such as the pointed telescope of NASA.

The ingredients that have risen in J0446B’s hard drive tell the astronomers a lot about what happens on the disc. The presence of argon and neon atom lines suggests that soft X-rays and extreme ultraviolet rays can be responsible for the ionization of the hard drive. This could help explain why the hard drive took so long. Star energy that hits the pane can ionize the gas in it and blow the gas away. Star radiation And the ionization also affects the temperature of the hard drive and influences the movement of the dust and the gas. Together, this can influence the chemistry of the hard drive and promote the formation of more complex molecules.

How do scientists determine the age of a hard drive? It all depends on the star.

“The measurement of the star age is known as difficult,” said Long. Fortunately, most stars do not form alone, but remain within a group. “Although the absolute star age is uncertain, the relative age difference can be robust.”

Astronomers examine the star stars by one person. Star clusters move together like a pack of hooligans through the galaxy and can be dated as a group. This indicates that they were formed at about the same time.

If instruments become more precise, astronomers can better restrict these age groups. The GAIA mission of the European Space Agency has presented precise measurements for more than a billion stars via theirs recently completed 12-year mission This has made it possible for the researchers to further refine these age groups and to set J0446b and their hard drive to around 33 million years.

Planet

At some point during the lifespan of the protoplanetar disc, rock, ice and gas begin to planetary cores. Long -lived windows could play an important role in their formation and maintenance. It is believed that giant planets form within the first million years because they need a large amount of gas. Rocky planets can take until the gas has taken, said Long.

However, if the gas is for longer time scales, this may give more time to create huge planets. And the presence of gas can help you stay longer and dampen wild orbit that could otherwise lead to ejected worlds.

Silverberg is cautious and points out that low mass esters tend to start with less gas than their larger outstanding cousins. Even if the gas puts around longer, it may not be enough to build massive giants. This fits observations in which stars with a low mass have only a few or no giants.

The make -up of the hard drive also has an impact on the types of planets may have formed. Cycle hydrogen was particularly thick in the J0446b. Long believes that carbon -rich slices can be a signature of durable windows by stars with a low mass. The increased carbon content could linger to influence the planet atmospheres. Rocky worlds that circle these smaller stars could have rich carbon atmospheres or even hazes such as Saturns Moon Titan. Titan is one of the best candidates for life to develop in our solar system.

“The ratio with high carbon oxygen ratio can help to build and lead methane-rich atmospheres and to lead to haze,” said Long.

Cosmic rarities

How often are these Peter Pan discs? Not very. So far, only nine have been found, none examined as J0446b. While most live in star clusters that enable easy dating, the improved precision of GAIA leads to an adaptation to the age of some stars.

The question of why these stars have such long -lasting hard drives in particular is unknown. Low mass stars have lower radiation that could allow their windows to survive more time. But not all stars with a low mass of Peter Pan Disks clearly form.

The deficiency can be related to what instruments can find today. “It seems plausible that the lack of recognizations of discs of this kind is more likely to be due to the observation boundaries than to an actual lack of such systems,” wrote Silverstone in his article from 2020.

Alternatively, it can be something specific for the windows itself.

“For these specific long -lasting windows, your hard drive can also develop slower than your colleagues without hard drives around similar stars,” said Long.