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For the First Time, Astronomers Capture 'Smoking Gun' of Early Solar System Formation
ORION B MOLECULAR CLOUD, JUL 17 – Using ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers captured solid particles condensing from hot gas, marking the earliest observed stage of planet formation around protostar HOPS-315.
- On Wednesday the European Southern Observatory announced that astronomers observed the earliest planet formation stage around HOPS-315 in Orion B molecular cloud.
- Given its age and conditions, HOPS-315, a young protostar, mirrors early solar system events, making it ideal for studying planet formation.
- Data show that condensation of crystalline minerals demonstrates the initial formation of planetesimals by infrared and millimeter observations from James Webb Space Telescope and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array .
- This milestone reaction came with, `This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disc—or anywhere outside our Solar System,` Edwin Bergin said, and the find opens new avenues for studying other young star systems across the galaxy.
- Looking ahead, this discovery could improve understanding of how common solar systems like ours are, potentially helping identify systems that might harbor life or resemble our own.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Astronomers capture dawn of new solar system for 1st time
Astronomers have spotted the earliest known signs of rocky planet formation around a young, sun-like star for the first time. The discovery offers an unprecedented glimpse into what may have happened at the dawn of our own solar system. What did the researchers see? Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's ALMA array in Chile, researchers peered into the gas disk surrounding the infant star HOPS-315, about …
Dawn of a New Solar System: Watch Planets Begin to Form 1300 Light-Years Away
In a cosmic breakthrough, scientists using the James Webb and ALMA telescopes have caught a rare glimpse of a planetary system in its earliest moments — as hot mineral crystals first begin to solidify around a young star called HOPS-315, 1300 light-years from Earth. This is the first time astronomers have observed the very beginnings [...]
Seeing the Exact Moment When New Planets Started Forming
Astronomers have seen exoplanetary systems at almost every stage, from extremely young to older than the Solar System. But now, they've spotted the exact moment when planet formation is initiated around a young star. Meteorites store a history of when the first minerals formed in the Solar System, and the ALMA telescope has seen the signal of these minerals forming in a protostellar system, about 1,300 light-years from Earth.
Birth of New Solar System Detected Around Distant Star
ALMA image of HOPS-315, a still-forming planetary system. Credit: European Southern Observatory For the first time, scientists have captured the earliest known stage of rocky planet formation around a star beyond our Sun. Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers detected the initial condensation of solid mineral grains within the disk of a young protost…
The ALMA telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope were used to observe the system around the young star HOPS-315.
With the formation of the first grains of planetary material (ANSA)
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