Astronomers have made history by witnessing the birth of a planetary system around a star other than our sun. The discovery, announced on July 16, provides scientists with a unique opportunity to study how our solar system formed around the sun approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
The breakthrough was achieved using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The team identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star, pinpointing specks of material that will eventually forge planets as forming around the infant star HOPS-315.
Located 1,300 light-years away, HOPS-315 is an ideal candidate to study our cosmic history. The team detected silicon monoxide, a mineral present in meteorites formed at the same time as our solar system, condensing in the protoplanetary disk swirling around the star. This suggests that the process of mineral condensation has just begun around HOPS-315.
“This is the first time we’ve seen this process in a protoplanetary disk or anywhere outside our solar system,” said team member Edwin Bergin. The minerals were detected by the JWST, with ALMA pinpointing their location to a specific area of the protoplanetary disk.
The discovery provides valuable insights into the formation of planetary systems and offers scientists a proxy to study our own cosmic history. As team member Merel van ‘t Hoff noted, “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.space.com/astronomy/astronomers-witness-the-birth-of-a-planetary-system-for-the-1st-time-photo-video