- The researchers used e-MERLIN, an array of seven dishes spanning 217 kilometers across the central United Kingdom. By combining the signals from all the dishes they can achieve the sensitivity of a single dish 217 kilometers across—a technique known as interferometry.
- They observed DG Tauri, a star 450 light-years from Earth that is shooting jets of hot gas from its poles—the sign of a young star.
- Focusing on radio waves with a wavelength of 4.6 centimeters coming from DG Tauri, the team reported that it could see a band of material around the star at about the distance of the orbit of Jupiter from Earth. Such radiowaves would be produced by rocks of about a centimetre in size, suggesting this is a band of pebbles which will, sometime in the next few million years, coalesce into a planet.
Astronomers Witness The Formation Of A New Planet For The First Time
7. 7. 15 by Hashem AL-ghaili