Astronomers recently observed that TW Hydrae, the closest T Tauri star to the Solar System, is surrounded by a dusty disk. This circular formation is probably a sign of a protoplanets formation. Scientists were hopeful that the young version of Earth is forming there.
"Previous studies with optical and radio telescopes confirm that this star hosts a prominent disc with features that strongly suggest planets are beginning to coalesce," said Sean Andrews of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Andrews is also the lead author on a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
However, according to LMU astrophysicist Barbara Ercolano, the innermost part of the formation reveals an impending dispersal of the disk-the death of the planet nursery.
Ercolano and her team have observed that there's a gap in the TW Hydrae system, which is not probably caused by the action of an actively accreting protoplanet. The team suspects that it is caused by photoevaporation. This is a process that occurs when the parent star's intense radiation heats the gas, allowing it to fly away from the disk.
Although hopes of a new exo-Earth are gone, scientists are still thrilled with TW Hydrae as it provides an opportunity to thoroughly study the dissipation of a circumstellar disk.
"TW Hydrae is quite special. It is the nearest known protoplanetary disc to Earth and it may closely resemble our solar system when it was only 10 million years old," said David Wilner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
TW Hydrae, in the constellation Hydra, is a great object of study for astronomers because of its proximity to Earth. It is just 176 light-years away from Earth. It is a newborn star but it is about 80% of the mass of the sun. The star's face-on orientation as seen from Earth gives astronomers an undistorted view of the star and the protoplanets formation.
By studying TW Hydrae, scientists hope to know how the dusty disk might change with time and how common this celestial feature is.
