Watching an Exoplanet Grow

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The Earth spins in space. Text, News from the Universe, May 25, 2021.
 
Watching an Exoplanet Grow, May 24, 2021
 
For the first time, astronomers can see a planet in the process of forming.
 
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the young, Jupiter-sized planet PDS 70b in the dusty disk of its star.
 
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The planet's magnetic field lines are funneling hot gas down to its surface, causing it to glow with ultraviolet light, picked up by Hubble.

PDS 70b is the youngest exoplanet Hubble has ever captured.
 
New techniques used to observe this planet will likely influence the future study of how exoplanets form.
 
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD