Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery using the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Located 1,300 light-years from Earth, the HOPS-315 system is a young solar system that is providing unprecedented insights into its early stages of formation.
For the first time, scientists have observed hot minerals in a distant solar system beginning to solidify into a small planetesimal. This discovery has allowed researchers to pinpoint the moment when planets begin to form, shedding light on the processes that led to our own Solar System’s evolution.
The HOPS-315 system is similar to our Sun, a G-type yellow dwarf, making it an ideal analog for studying early planet formation. The international team behind this discovery used advanced radio and infrared optics to observe multiple planet-forming disks around young stars, including ALMA and JWST data. This combined effort revealed the presence of crystalline minerals containing silicon monoxide (SiO) in a small region of the disk.
The SiO signal is indicative of solidification, suggesting that the system is just beginning to form planets. The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of the Solar System’s origins and the processes that led to its evolution. According to Melissa K. McClure, lead researcher on the project, “We’ve always known that the first solid parts of planets must form further back in time… For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our Sun.”
This breakthrough has provided a unique opportunity for scientists to study early planet formation and gain insights into how solar systems like ours evolved. As Merel van ‘t Hoff noted, “We’re seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form… This system is one of the best we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our Solar System.”
Source: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/seeing-the-exact-moment-when-new-planets-started-forming