Evidence of Co-Orbital Planets ?
First there was Hubble, then JWST. The End. ?
Well, clearly not ! Astronomers all around the world have been using many different types of both ground and space based telescopes, not regularly featured in the media, but just as revolutionary to Astronomy.
One such telescope has been ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. One of it's functions has been to target stars to such an extent, it could see the dust and gas swirling around them, and the animated gif above, is a collection of many of it's findings.
Astronomers believe the dark areas could possibly represent planets forming and removing the dust/gas material as they do, although it could also be the boundary where different kinds of elements can remain stable, although it's quite possible both are at play to some extent.
A recent image of PDS70, a very young T Tauri type star some 370 light years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus appears to show two objects within the dark area, and sharing the same orbit around the star.
Could this be evidence of planets co-orbiting a star ? This is not evidence of it, but maybe at least a candidate for study.
If it turns out to be that, then it opens up a whole new area of interest in how such situations can evolve and where it may lead.
Particularly interesting as the most popular theory to the moon, is that our planet collided with another early in it's history.
Source:
A team of astronomers observed the PDS 70 system and spotted a cloud of debris at the location in planet PDS 70b’s orbit where Trojans are t