Could science have gone astray?

(NLĐO) - The mysterious planet PDS 70 b threatens to overturn long-held cosmological theories as it reveals a composition different from that of its parent star's protoplanetary disk.

According to Astrobiology, just as children resemble their parents, scientists have long believed that developing planets will resemble the swirling disk of gas and dust that gave birth to them—that is, the protoplanetary disk of their parent star.

But new research led by Northwestern University (USA) has identified an anomaly in PDS 70 b, which resembles a young cuckoo bird in the PDS 70 star system.

The PDS 70 star system, with its parent star obscured (black to block out glare), reveals the protoplanetary disk structure, with PDS 70 b (bright spot to the right) clearly visible - Image: ESO

Writing in the scientific journal Astrophysical Journal Letters , the research team stated that this is the first time astrophysicists have compared information from an exoplanet, its protoplanetary disk, and its parent star.

According to the long-standing theories of planet formation, the ratio of carbon and oxygen in a planet's atmosphere must match the ratio of carbon and oxygen in its protoplanetary disk.

But the carbon and oxygen ratio of the "cuckoo planet" PDS 70 b is much lower than that of the faint, still-existing disk of gas and dust around it.

They suggest there could be two different scenarios that could describe this anomaly.

First, this planet may have formed before the protoplanetary disk of the star system, so it is rich in carbon.

Secondly, the planet may have developed primarily by absorbing large amounts of solid material in addition to gas. While the spectrum only shows gas, some of the original carbon and oxygen may have accumulated from solids trapped in ice and dust.

To gain a better understanding, scientists intend to further study PDS 70 c, another planet located in the same star system.

PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c are two new gas giants, about 5 million years old, located in the PDS 70 star system, which still has a protoplanetary disk—a primitive form of structure that will disappear after the material in the disk has coalesced into planets.

This star system is located 366 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus and is one of the rare star systems that scientists can observe in the intermediate stage of planet formation, meaning that planets have begun to form but the gas and dust disk has not yet completely disappeared.

Therefore, PDS 70 is a fantastic world for studying planet formation. And it has initially demonstrated that humanity may have been "lost" when developing its early theories.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/hanh-tinh-tu-hu-dau-tien-lo-dien-khoa-hoc-co-the-da-lac-loi-196241221090356597.htm