Scientists spot pair of newborn planets orbiting young star

A team of scientists has found evidence of a pair of newborn planets orbiting a young star. (Representational image)

New Delhi: A team of scientists has found evidence of a pair of newborn planets orbiting a young star.

Scientists claim that each planet is about the size of Saturn and the young star they have been found orbiting around is located 400 light years from the Earth.

Both the planets unveiled themselves as a result of the dual imprint they left in both the dust and the gas portions of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the host star.

The host star is roughly five million years old and about twice the mass of the Sun and located about 400 light-years from Earth.

Previous observations of other young star systems have helped to reshape our understanding of planet formation, researchers said.

For example, images of HL Tauri and TW Hydrae taken by the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) showed striking gaps and prominent ring structures in the dusty disks of the stars.

These features may be the tantalising first signs that planets are being born.

These signs appeared around much younger stars than astronomers thought possible, suggesting that planet formation can begin soon after the formation of a protoplanetary disk.