First-Ever Clear Images of Baby Planets Shock Scientists

Astronomers have captured the sharpest-ever images of infant planets forming around a distant star, revealing unexpected growth spurts and chaotic conditions. Using the cutting-edge Magellan Adaptive Optics Xtreme (MagAO-X) system, researchers studied two protoplanets orbiting the young star PDS 70, located 370 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.

A Rare Look At Planetary Birth

The PDS 70 system serves as a window into the past, offering clues about how our own solar system may have formed billions of years ago. Unlike mature stars, PDS 70 is still surrounded by a protoplanetary disk—a vast cloud of gas and dust where planets take shape.

Using MagAO-X, astronomers discovered dense rings of dust around the two forming planets, PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c. These rings are expected to collapse over time, potentially forming moons—a process that may have occurred around Jupiter and Saturn in the early solar system.

Laird Close, a professor at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, explains that massive planets act like cosmic vacuum cleaners, clearing gaps in the surrounding disk of gas and dust as they grow. The presence of compact dust rings confirms that planets can actively shape their own environments, influencing how moons and planetary features emerge.

Cutting-edge Optics Reveal Fine Details

Observing planets at such an early stage of formation is an enormous challenge. Ground-based telescopes struggle with atmospheric distortion, which blurs images.

However, the MagAO-X system overcomes this issue by using a deformable mirror that adjusts 2,000 times per second, counteracting the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere.

This technology allows ground-based telescopes to achieve a higher resolution than even space-based observatories like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Close compares the process to noise-canceling headphones, which block unwanted background noise—except in this case, it’s eliminating atmospheric interference.The level of precision is astonishing.

From 370 light-years away, MagAO-X can detect details as small as the difference between holding one or two quarters at a distance of 125 miles.

Baby Planets With Surprising Brightness Changes

One of the most unexpected discoveries was how dramatically the brightness of the planets changed over time. Between 2019 and 2022, PDS 70 b dimmed to just one-fifth of its original brightness, while PDS 70 c became twice as bright.

Researchers believe these fluctuations are due to hydrogen “waterfalls”—gas streaming onto the planets and emitting H-alpha light as it heats up. Changes in the flow of hydrogen suggest that planetary growth happens in bursts, rather than at a steady rate.

Close described this phenomenon in simple terms: “Essentially, one of the planets abruptly went on a diet while the other was feasting on hydrogen.”

What This Means For Future Discoveries?

These findings highlight the incredible power of ground-based telescopes equipped with advanced adaptive optics. While space observatories like JWST offer breathtaking images, Earth-based telescopes can house much larger mirrors, allowing them to capture even finer details of distant worlds.

Jared Males, the principal investigator of MagAO-X, believes these advancements will make it easier to identify more baby planets and uncover hidden details of planetary formation.

By refining observation techniques, astronomers hope to piece together the story of our own solar system’s birth, revealing insights that were lost over billions of years of evolution.