Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery about how planets form. They’ve found that many protoplanetary disks, which are the birthplaces of planets, are not flat and serene as previously thought. Instead, they’re warped and irregular. This changes our understanding of how worlds grow and why their orbits end up askew.
A team of international astronomers used ALMA’s high-precision radio maps to track gas motions in nearby protoplanetary disk systems. They found small, orderly tilts running across the gas. These tilts are linked to how material moves through the disk and how quickly the central star is feeding.
The study reveals that mild, disc-wide tilts can set up planets on non-circular orbits early on. The team’s findings also match images taken in reflected starlight from dusty discs, offering a simple explanation for subtle patterns seen in those images.
The researchers found a connection between warps and the star’s accretion rate, which is the rate at which it pulls in dust, gas, and other disk material. When the average warp strength is higher, accretion tends to be higher too. This suggests a physical link between the outer disc and the inner zone that feeds the star.
The study has significant implications for our understanding of planet formation. It challenges the idea of orderly planet formation and poses an interesting challenge for the future. The discovery also offers new clues for predicting which disks are most likely to grow giant planets on tilted orbits.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/planets-are-not-born-in-order-but-in-warped-chaos-protoplanetary-disks