Astronomers observe the early stages of the formation of a solar system.

 

Astronomers have observed the early stages of planet formation around a star, a process similar to the one that formed our solar system, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"For the first time, we have observed the earliest moments when a planet began to form around a star other than our Sun," said Melissa McClure, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study, in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

HOPS-315, located in the Orion Nebula 1,300 light-years away, is a young star very similar to our Sun in its early stages.

These young stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust, called "protoplanetary disks," in which planets form.

Inside these disks, crystalline minerals containing silicon monoxide (SiO) condense at very high temperatures.

Over time, these minerals coalesce and increase in size and weight to form "planetaries," the first solid parts of planets.

In our solar system, these crystalline minerals, which later led to the formation of planets like Earth or the core of Jupiter, were trapped in ancient meteorites. Astronomers use this data to determine the earliest date of formation in our corner of the Milky Way.

By observing the disk around the star Hobbs-315, the study authors found evidence that these hot minerals began to condense there.

Their results showed that silicon monoxide was present around the young star in a gaseous state, as well as within these crystalline minerals, indicating that it had recently begun to solidify.

"This process has never been observed before in a protoplanetary disk, or anywhere else outside our solar system," said Melissa McClure, co-author of the study.

These minerals were first observed using the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists then observed the system using the European Southern Observatory's ALMA instrument in Chile to determine the precise source of the chemical signatures.

They discovered that the source of these signals is a small part of the disk surrounding the star, equivalent to the orbit of the asteroid belt surrounding our Sun. This makes Hoops-315 a mirror of our past.

"This system is one of the best we know for exploring some of the processes that occurred in our solar system," said Merrill van't Hoff, a professor at Purdue University and co-author of the study.