Astronomers observe birth of a solar system for the first time
Unprecedented observation of planets beginning to form 1,300 light-years away offers vital clues about how Earth and other planets originated
Astronomers said on Wednesday they had observed the moment when planets start forming around a distant star for the first time, revealing a process that sheds light on the birth of our own solar system.
The new planetary system is forming around the baby star HOPS-315 - which resembles our own sun in its youth - 1,300 light years from Earth in the Orion Nebula.
Young stars are surrounded by massive rings of gas and dust called protoplanetary discs, which is where planets form.
Inside these swirling discs, crystalline minerals that contain the chemical silicon monoxide can clump together.
This process can snowball into kilometre-sized “planetesimals”, which one day grow into full planets.
In our home solar system, the crystalline minerals that were the starter dough for Earth and Jupiter’s core are believed to have been trapped in ancient meteorites.