July 21, 2023

The PDS 70 system with its large protoplanetary disk. The larger circle indicates the orbit of the exoplanet PDS 70b, highlighted by another solid circle. A circle with a dashed line indicates the debris cloud that appears to occupy the same orbit.

An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the discovery of a debris cloud that appears to share the orbit with the exoplanet PDS 70b. A team of astronomers reanalyzed observations conducted with the ALMA radio telescope to study the system of the very young star PDS 70 and its planets in their formation phase. The debris detected in the vicinity of PDS 70b could constitute another planet still in formation or be the remnants of a planet that had already formed.