CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥 Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system.
It鈥檚 an unprecedented snapshot of 鈥渢ime zero,鈥 scientists reported Wednesday, when begin to gel.
鈥淲e鈥檝e captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said Leiden Observatory鈥檚 Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. 鈥淔or the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of are happening right now.鈥
The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicago鈥檚 Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature.
鈥淭his is one of the things we鈥檝e been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time," Ciesla said. 鈥淭here's a rich opportunity here.鈥
NASA鈥檚 Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It鈥檚 a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles.
In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing 鈥 signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth.
They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what鈥檚 believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system鈥檚 planets.
The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, 鈥渟o we didn鈥檛 know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system,鈥 McClure said in an email. 鈥淥ur study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation.鈥
While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, there鈥檚 been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said.
In a stunning picture taken by the ESO's Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void.
It鈥檚 impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the sun鈥檚 might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure.
Purdue University鈥檚 Merel van 鈥檛 Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds.
鈥淎re there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?"
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AP video journalist Javier Arciga contributed to this report.
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