Imaging the youngest planets

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Over 5000 exoplanets have been discovered, demonstrating that planet formation is a robust and widespread process. But we do not know how these planets, including those in our solar system, formed. Our group at Monash pioneered a new technique for detecting "baby" planets --- observed still embedded in the disc of gas and dust from which they are born. The project aims to characterise the youngest detected exoplanets with the world's largest telescopes, including time already awarded on the James Webb Space Telescope. We will image these planets, and model their birth in 3D. The project will develop state of the art computer algorithms for simulating fluid flow and data analysis technics that can be applied to problems here on Earth.