Usando el Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), los astrónomos han encontrado el posible «hermano» de un planeta que orbita alrededor de una estrella distante. El equipo ha detectado una nube de escombros que podría estar compartiendo la órbita de este planeta y que, se cree, podrían ser los componentes básicos de un nuevo planeta o los restos de uno ya formado. De confirmarse, este descubrimiento sería la prueba más contundente hasta ahora de que dos exoplanetas pueden compartir una órbita.

This image, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, shows the young planetary system PDS 70, located nearly 400 light-years away from Earth. The system features a star at its centre, around which the planet PDS 70b (highlighted with a solid yellow circle) is orbiting. On the same orbit as PDS 70b, indicated by a solid yellow ellipse, astronomers have detected a cloud of debris (circled by a yellow dotted line) that could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. The ring-like structure that dominates the image is a circumstellar disc of material, out of which planets are forming. There is in fact another planet in this system: PDS 70c, seen at 3 o’clock right next to the inner rim of the disc.