Hubble sees potential planet forming around nearby star

Science News : From images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers believe they may have detected a developing planet circling its star at a distance twice that of Pluto from our Sun. In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, John Debes of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues say they base their finding on a gap in the dusty disk of debris circling TW Hydrae, a relatively young star located 176 million light-years away. They think the gap was caused by a clump of dust and gas orbiting the star and growing like a snowball as it scoops up more and more material. However, the fact that the gap is located so far from the star casts doubt on its really having been caused by a young planet. At such a distance, dust and gas particles are much less densely packed and move much more slowly than those in a closer orbit, which would make it difficult for a developing planetary body to gather enough material to clear such a wide swath. Whereas the initial images were captured by the nearly 20-year-old Hubble, the astronomers hope that newer instruments will provide them a better view.