Astronomers had thought of exoplanets sharing the same orbit. It turned out that their hypothesis was right after all when they spotted the trojan planets or co-orbital planets for the first time.
Trojan Planets Spotted For The First Time
Despite 20 years of speculation, there have never been any discoveries of Trojan or co-orbital planets. It would be an exciting moment for astronomers if they were confirmed to exist. They are named after the rocky entities in the same orbit as a planet typical in our own Solar System, the most famous of which are the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, Daily Mail reported.
An international team of astronomers has discovered a cloud of debris that they believe could be the 400 light-years away "sibling" of a planet. According to researchers, it might be the nuclei of a brand-new planet or the remains of one that has already formed. The discovery would prove that two exoplanets can share an orbit.
Lead researcher Olga Balsalobre-Ruza of the Centre for Astrobiology in Madrid said it was theorized 20 years ago that pairs of planets with similar masses would have the same orbit around their star. These planets are referred to as Trojan or co-orbital planets. A recent study supported the said hypothesis.
The astronomers conducted their observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
Jorge Lillo-Box of the Centre for Astrobiology claimed that trojan planets are like unicorns. Although they are allowed to exist by theory, no one has spotted them until the recent sighting.
According to the researchers, the PDS 70 system, home to a young star and the giant Jupiter-like planets PDS 70b and PDS 70c, may contain a Trojan exoplanet and its sister. The Lagrangian zone, a region of PDS 70 b's orbit where Trojans are thought to reside, is where they found the debris cloud.
It is the best place to look for "sibling" exoplanets since there are two zones in a planet's orbit where the combined gravitational pull of the star and the planet might capture material.
The research team discovered a weak signal in one of the planet's Lagrangian zones that raised the possibility that a debris cloud might be hidden.
They believe it to be a planet that is presently developing or a Trojan world itself. Balsalobre-Ruza said their work is the first instance of proof that a world like this exists. She added that it seemed unfathomable to him that two planets could have the same orbit. She explained that a planet might share its orbit with hundreds of asteroids, as in the case of Jupiter, but it was mindblowing that worlds could share the same trajectory.
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What Are Trojan Planets or Trojan Asteroids?
Any of the asteroids that occupy a stable Lagrangian point in a planet's orbit around the Sun is referred to as a Trojan asteroid, sometimes known as a Trojan planet, per Britannica.
Trojans are the name for asteroids or other small celestial bodies that circle close to Jupiter's Lagrarian points and have a shared orbit with a larger object. Trojans share the orbits of planets or large moons, making them co-orbital objects. The Solar System's known Trojan population is predominately located in Jupiter's orbit, according to Hindustan Times.
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