An International team of researchers led by Stephane Guilloteau at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France has unexpectedly found cold dust grains in a planet-forming disc that has been nick named ‘Flying Saucer.’ Flying Saucer is located 400 light years from our planet.
With the help of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and IRAM Telescopes, researchers have measured the amount of large dust grains that lie in the outer regions of the planet-forming disc around 2MASS J16281370-2431391, the budding star.
As per the findings, the temperature of Cold Grains is minus 266 degree Celsius, which is much colder than expected by current models. This new evidence fetched from the Rho Ophiuchi star formation region is projected to reveal more details about planet formation.
An unpredictable negative signal from the flying saucer has compelled the researchers to make the conclusion that parts of the disc are colder than its background. Stephane Guilloteau told that Earth is quite literally in the shadow of the Flying Saucer!.
Earlier, researchers believed that temperature in protoplanetary discs ranges from minus 253 to minus 258 Degree Celsius. According to Stephane Guilloteau, the solution to this considerable discrepancy lies in the properties of large dust grains.
He believes that application of low dust temperatures observed in the current study in other protoplanetary discs may break our understanding of the formation of these structures.
The particular disc is known for creating that particular brightness which represents the early stages of planetary system creation, and astronomers call it ‘Flying Saucer.’
Emmanuel di Folco, the study co-author, told that the temperature in these Flying Saucers may be directly dependent on the size of the grains.
He believes that bigger grains will be cooler when compared to smaller ones. Emmanuel also added that making a theory finalization at this juncture is not wise, as more studies need to be conducted in this area.
