Three infant alien planets have been detected around a young star not too far away from our solar system.
Two separate studies found strong evidence to suggest the new formation of the three exoplanets, which are all Jupiter-like gas giants, Space.com reported.
The star they orbit, HD 163296, is 4 million years old and lies toward the constellation Sagittarius.
Astronomers initially noticed a disk of dust and gas circling the star, and located within that disk were two dark gaps likely carved out by birthing planets.
However, instead of studying these gaps, both research teams instead analyzed the motion of carbon monoxide, which usually moves in a predictable way unless it comes into contact with gravitational obstacles — a planet for example.
"It would take a relatively massive object, like a planet, to create localized disturbances in this otherwise orderly motion," said Christophe Pinte of Monash University in Australia and lead author on one of the two papers. "Our new technique applies this principle to help us understand how planetary systems form."
Pinte's team looked for anomalies in the flow of the gas that would indicate it was interacting with a massive object.
Meanwhile, the second team of researchers led by Richard Teague, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and principal author on one of the papers, measured variations in the gas’s velocity which revealed the impact of multiple planets on the gas motion nearer to the star.
Both teams concluded there was sufficient evidence to suggest that three infant planets were being born around HD 163296.
Astronomers have discovered more than 3,700 confirmed exoplanets to date, Space.com noted.
Most recently, an international team of researchers came across K2-229b, an Earth-sized exoplanet located 339 light years away.
The new planet orbits its star every 14 hours. Because of its close location to the medium-sized active K dwarf in the Virgo Constellation, K2-229b sees daytime temperatures soar above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, making it an uninhabitable zone.
Earlier this year, 15 other new planets were discovered near our solar system, with at least one of them being a "super-Earth" that could harbor liquid water.
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