Astronomers discover rare Trojan which may share orbit with Jupiter-like planet

A rare “sibling” which is likely to share a similar orbit with a Jupiter-like planet around a young star hasbeen found by astronomers.

Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array of telescopes (ALMA) has been used by researchers in Chile to observe the PDS 70 system which is located at a distance of 370 light-years from the Centaurus constellation.

Astronomers are already aware of two Jupiter-like planets, which are called PDS 70c and PDS 70b, orbiting the star. However, they have spied a cloud of debris in the orbital path of PDS 70b which can represent a new planet's building blocks which is actively forming or already formed.

The scientists feel that the planet's direct image may be the strongest evidence to date which shows that the two exoplanets can possibly share the exact same orbit. A study, in which the findings were mentioned in detail, was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on Wednesday (July 19).

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“Two decades ago it was predicted in theory that pairs of planets of similar mass may share the same orbit around their star, the so-called Trojan or co-orbital planets. For the first time, we have found evidence in favour of that idea,” stated lead study author Olga Balsalobre-Ruza, who is a postdoctoral student of astrophysics at Madrid’s Centre for Astrobiology, in a statement.

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What are Trojans?

The rocky space bodies which exist within the same orbit just like planets are called Trojans. Such phenomena are commonly found in all solar systems, which include a couple of them in Earth’s orbit and more than 12,000 Trojan asteroids which exist in the orbit of Jupiter as it moves around the sun.

NASA’s Lucy mission, which was launched by the space agency in October 2021, will be the first to carry out a of study these never-before-seen asteroids from close. Till now, there has been sparse evidence of Trojans beyond our solar system, especially Trojan planets.

“Exotrojans (Trojan planets outside the Solar System) have so far been like unicorns: they are allowed to exist by theory but no one has ever detected them,” stated study coauthor Jorge Lillo-Box, who is a researcher at the Centre for Astrobiology, in a statement.

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Typically, Trojans are found in Lagrangian points, which are the two extended regions within the orbit of the planet where materials can be trapped by the gravitational pull of the star and planet.

The discovery has forced researchers to question the formation of Trojans and how many can exist in other planetary systems, stated study coauthor Itziar De Gregorio-Monsalvo, the European Southern Observatory’s head of the Office for Science in Chile, in a statement.

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