The 1997 film Contact, starring Jodie Foster, proved prophetic. At first glance, no planets have been discovered in the Vega system, one of the brightest stars in the Earth’s sky. An in-depth survey of the Vega system using the Hubble and Webb telescopes showed a uniform distribution of gas and dust over a width of 160 billion km with no visible traces of planets, although signs of three exoplanets are visible around the similar star Fomalhaut under completely similar conditions.
Image of the gas and dust disk of the Vega system according to data from Hubble (left) and Webb (right). Image source: NASA
Scientists are perplexed – the same physics has led to a completely opposite result. Both stars are 450 million years old. Both have classic gas and dust protoplanetary disks. In the Fomalhaut system, three clearly defined rings were discovered in a continuous disk of gas and dust, indicating the existence of planets there that literally plowed furrows in the disks.
Vega’s disk of gas and dust remained flat and smooth. However, one small gap is recorded at a distance of 60 AU. from the star, which corresponds to two distances of Neptune from the Sun. But where are the “vegan” Jupiter and Saturn? There are none! It wouldn’t be a problem to detect giant planets from a distance of 25 light years.
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Within the permissible range of observations, Hubble is able to recognize the glow of Vega’s gas and dust disk in ultraviolet. In the image above it is on the left. Hubble shows the distribution of literal dust – particles characteristic of smoke. The image on the right from Webb shows the glow of larger particles, like sand radiating heat. In any case, there are no traces of planetary-scale objects, which was a real surprise for researchers that will force them to rethink the evolution of planetary disks. Some of them may be deserts, and this reduces the likelihood of life originating in some corners of the Universe.