Astronomers have seen for first time how planetary system is born around star
This was reported by Space.com, according to Ukrinform.
“For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our sun,” said Melissa McClure, a researcher at Leiden University (Netherlands) and leader of the group.
Scientists were able to accurately determine the moment of birth of the planetary system when particles of matter began to form around the young star HOPS-315, located approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth, which will one day form planets.
The breakthrough was made possible by data from the ALMA radio telescope array (66 radio telescopes located in the desert in northern Chile) and observations from the James Webb Space Telescope.
As is well known, stars are born when cold, dense regions of interstellar gas and dust collapse under their own gravity. This results in the formation of a “protostar” surrounded by a shell of the same material from which it was formed. This material eventually flattens into a disk with the protostar at its center.
This structure is known as a “protoplanetary disk” — it is from this disk and within it that new planets are formed.
As reported by Ukrinform, thanks to the Swiss space telescope CHEOPS, astronomers have discovered the first “suicide planet” in history — the exoplanet HIP 67522 b.
Photo: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al.
