Alien Earth May Be Forming Around Nearby Star

Scientists have probably got some exciting baby photos of an alien earth getting formed around a nearby star.

Experts from the European Space Observatory (ESO) have captured a close and detailed image of a protoplanetary disc with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope.

"Previous studies with optical and radio telescopes confirm that TW Hydrae hosts a prominent disc with features that strongly suggest planets are beginning to coalesce," said Sean Andrews, lead author of the paper.

The image was shot from a disc around a nearby sun-like star, TW Hydrae. The documents show that the distance of this object from the star is just the same as the distance of the earth from the sun. Hence, there seems to be a small planet, like the earth, getting formed.

TW Hydrae has been close to the Earth and is only around 10 million years young. Its rare face-on orientation seen from the earth gives astronomers an insight into the detailed protoplanetary disc around it.

"The new ALMA images show the disc in unprecedented detail, revealing a series of concentric dusty bright rings and dark gaps, including intriguing features that may indicate that a planet with an Earth-like orbit is forming there."

The team could also image faint radio emissions from tiny dust grains in the disc, which disclosed the details on the order of the distance between the earth and the sun, working out to 150 million kilometers.

"This is the highest spatial resolution image ever of a protoplanetary disc from ALMA, and that won't be easily beaten in the future!" Andrews said"This is the highest spatial resolution image ever of a protoplanetary disc from ALMA, and that won't be easily beaten in the future!" Andrews said.

By studying the TW Hydra disc, scientists hope to get a better understanding of the evolution of Earth and formation of similar planets in the solar system.

"TW Hydrae is quite special," added David Wilner, co-author of the study. "It is the nearest known protoplanetary disc to Earth and it may closely resemble the Solar System when it was only 10 million years old."

The draft version of the paper was released by the ESO.