UA student leads research into planet formations using Webb telescope
A published study provides new insight into how planets are formed. With contributions from members of the University of Arizona, the findings were based in part on observation of a young star known as T Cha.
Doctoral student Naman Bajaj led the study, which focused on how long it takes for disks of gas and dust swirling around a new star to form a planet. He explained why T Cha was a good case study.
“It's basically a circular disk of dust and gas swirling around the star itself. And what is interesting about T Cha, the reason why it was studied in the first place, was it has a large dust gap," he said.
The research involved using the James Webb Space Telescope, which provided images on dispersal of gas into the surrounding space.
T Cha provided unique insights because of its vast dust gap, which is about 30 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. Ilaria Pascucci is a professor in the UA Department of Planetary Sciences.
“I think this was a very interesting discovery, but it's still just one object. And so we would really need a larger sample to see if what we are seeing in T Cha is common," she said.
The study was featured in The Astronomical Journal.
