An international team of researchers led by experts from Madrid detected a cloud of debris that they say could be the sibling of a planet orbiting a distant star 400 light-years away.
A team of astronomers observed the PDS 70 system and spotted a cloud of debris at the location in planet PDS 70b’s orbit where Trojans are thought to exist.
Astronomers think they've found the first pair of planets sharing the same orbit around a star, something never before seen in space. A confirmed planet circling PDS 70, a star about 370 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, appears to have a mysterious companion. Along the known world's orbit, the team detected a debris cloud, which they say could hold the makings of a new planet or the leftovers of one already formed. In our solar system, co-orbiting objects, referred to as Trojans, are fairly common. The prime example is the Trojan asteroids, some 12,000 space rocks traveling in two swarms along Jupiter's orbit around the sun, one leading the planet and the other trailing behind. Experts have predicted Trojan planets should also exist in the universe. But finding the proof has been tough. "Exotrojans have so far been like unicorns," said Jorge Lillo-Box, one of the astrophysicists on the team, in a statement. "They are allowed to exist