Astronomers Just Witnessed Planets Being Born Around A Baby Star 1300 Light-years Away...
Read more: Visit website International researchers have, for the first time, pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star beyond the Sun. Using the ALMA telescope, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, and the James Webb Space Telescope, they have observed the creation of the first specks of planet-forming material -- hot minerals just beginning to solidify.
This finding marks the first time a planetary system has been identified at such an early stage in its formation and opens a window to the past of our own Solar System.
⁘For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our Sun,⁘ says Melissa McClure, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands and lead author of the new study, published on July 16 in Nature .
Co-author Merel van 't Hoff, a professor at Purdue University, USA, compares their findings to ⁘a picture of the baby Solar System,⁘ saying that ⁘we're seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form.⁘
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