The newborn planetary system is emerging around Hops-315, a baby star around 1,300 light-years away.
In a first, astronomers have observed the very early stages of the creation of a new solar system around a baby star roughly 1,300 light-years away.
Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a group of international researchers were able to observe the creation of the first specks of planet-forming material, as it begins to solidify around the star.
This, they say, is the first time scientists were able to capture such a moment at this early stage.
“We’re seeing a system that looks like what our solar system looked like when it was just beginning to form,” said Merel Van ’t Hoff, a professor at Purdue University and co-author of the study published in Nature.
Prior observation has shown that discs of gas and dust, also known as ‘protoplanetary discs’ are often found around such baby stars. These discs are essentially the birthplaces of new planets.
However, scientists theorised that the first solid parts of planets – or ‘planetesimals’ must have formed further back in time, at even earlier stages.
The very first solid material to condense near Earth’s present location around the our sun was found trapped inside ancient meteorites. Such meteorites are packed full of crystalline minerals that contain silicon monoxide and condense in the young planetary discs’ extremely high temperatures.
Over time, these newly condensed solids bind together, sowing the seeds for planet formation as they gain both size and mass.
The first kilometre-sized planetesimals in the solar system formed just after the condensation of these crystalline minerals, scientists say.
The newborn planetary system that was just discovered is emerging around HOPS-315, a baby star. Astronomers say that Hops-315 is comparable to the sun.
They found evidence of similar hot minerals beginning to condense in the disc around the star. Their results also show that silicon monoxide is also present around Hops-315 in a gaseous state, as well as within the crystalline minerals – suggesting that they are only just beginning to solidify.
“This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disc – or anywhere outside our solar system,” says co-author Edwin Bergin, a professor at the University of Michigan.
These minerals were first identified using the JWST. However, to find out where exactly the chemical signals were coming from, the team observed the system with ALMA, which is operated by the European Southern Observatory, together with international partners in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Using ALMA, the team determined that the signals were coming from a small region of the disc around the star equivalent to the orbit of the asteroid belt around the sun.
“This system is one of the best that we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our solar system,” Van ’t Hoff said. The discovery also provides astronomers with a new opportunity to study early planet formation.
Earlier this year, the JWST captured images of the earliest galaxy every seen called MoM-z14.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
