Researchers observe early state of planet formation beyond Earth's sun
The researchers from the United States, Canada and Europe saw the hot space minerals just as they began to solidify, marking the earliest stage in the planet-forming process that researchers have witnessed.
"For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our sun," professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Melissa McClure said.
The process was witnessed around the baby star HOPS-315, an analog for the budding sun, that is 1,300 light years away from Earth.
Researchers had previously witnessed young discs of gas and dust called "protoplanetary discs" that were the birthplace for newly formed Jupiter-like planets but the latest showed an earlier stage that scientists had never observed before.
"We've always known that the first solid parts of planets, or 'planetesimals,' must form further back in time, at earlier stages," McClure said.
Researchers first identified the minerals using the James Webb Telescope and then observed the system with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, to determine where the signals were coming from.
The findings showed that silicon monoxide, or SiO, which has the potential to condense in the high temperatures found in young planetary discs, can be found when baby stars are in their gaseous state, meaning it was just beginning to solidify.
"This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disc or anywhere outside our Solar System," Professor at the University of Michigan, Edwin Bergin said.
Andrew Sookdeo contributed to this report.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on August 9, 2025
The full moon is finally here, and if you're lucky enough to be graced with a cloudless night, there's a lot to see as we enter the next phase of the lunar cycle. This is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. So, what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 9? What is today's moon phase? As of Saturday, Aug. 9, the moon phase is Full Moon, and it is 100% lit (NASA's Daily Moon Observation confirms this). This month's full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon, an ode to fishing tribes and the plentiful sturgeon fish that was caught in the month of August. There's so much to be seen on the moon's surface tonight, but pay particular attention to the Mare Vaporum, the Mare Fecunditatis, and the Mare Tranquillitatis, all of which can be seen with the naked eye. When is the next full moon? The next full moon will be on September 7. What are moon phases? According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon's orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle: New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye). Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere). First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon. Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it's not quite full yet. Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible. Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit. Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Evidence of World-Changing Comet Explosion 12,800 Years Ago Found in The Ocean
Microscopic grains of alien dust buried in the sediment at the bottom of the ocean could be evidence of a comet that exploded in Earth's atmosphere 12,800 years ago. This hypothetical event, known as the Younger Dryas impact, was invoked to explain a sudden, 1,200-year period of rapid cooling to near-glacial conditions during a time when Earth's climate was on a warm upswing. It's a controversial proposal, to say the least, with many scientists roundly rejecting it while others remain more open to the possibility. One of the leading refutations is that no crater has been found, as one might expect from such a world-changing event… but the evidence may be much smaller than a crater. Related: Led by geoscientist Christopher Moore of the University of South Carolina, a team of researchers puts forward a new line of evidence: four sediment cores from Baffin Bay near Greenland. These are cylinders of material excavated vertically that preserve layers upon layers of seafloor sediment that were deposited over many millennia. "We chose to analyze marine cores from Baffin Bay to determine if Younger Dryas impact proxies reported from dozens of terrestrial sites globally were present in ocean cores," Moore explains in an interview with the science journal PLOS One. "The sites were significant because they were a considerable distance from potential anthropogenic [human] contamination, and in most cases, the cores were highly laminated, indicating that the record was relatively undisturbed." The researchers used radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of the layers, and then used a technique called single-particle inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry to look for signs of comet dust in the layers deposited during the time of the Younger Dryas cooling. This analysis revealed tiny particles of metal with compositions consistent with a cometary origin, including iron with low oxygen and high nickel content, and microspherules rich with iron and silica. These microspherules, the researchers say, consist mostly of material from Earth, but with a little bit of impactor material mixed in – likely from an airburst event as the comet exploded after atmospheric entry. "The Younger Dryas sediment layer in the Baffin cores contains multiple proxies consistent with an impact event. Microspherules, twisted and deformed metallic dust particles with chemistry consistent with comet or meteoritic material, meltglass, and identification of nanoparticle peaks in key elements (e.g., platinum and iridium) suggest an impact event," Moore says. "This evidence is supported by the findings on terrestrial sites on multiple continents in both hemispheres. This work builds on other evidence that the Younger Dryas impact event was likely global in scale." The researchers next plan to broaden the scale of their investigation by examining sediment cores from other ocean sites around the world. Their findings have been published in PLOS One. Related News 'Hot Blob' Heading For New York Following Ancient Greenland Rift Prehistoric Air Has Been Reconstructed From Dinosaur Teeth in an Amazing First Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than You Would Ever Believe Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASA Rovers Keep Getting Stuck, And We Finally Know Why
Although humanity is getting better at sending robotic probes out into the Solar System to explore the places no human can tread, we're still very much on a learning curve. The first extraterrestrial robotic rover was launched from Earth in 1970. It's only now, more than half a century later, that scientists have figured out why these marvels of ingenuity and engineering keep getting stuck in the soils of alien worlds. "In retrospect, the idea is simple: We need to consider not only the gravitational pull on the rover but also the effect of gravity on the sand to get a better picture of how the rover will perform on the Moon," explains mechanical engineer Dan Negrut of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Our findings underscore the value of using physics-based simulation to analyze rover mobility on granular soil." Related: We Will Never Get Tired of This Video of Astronauts Falling Over on The Moon Making a rover that will operate in an alien environment is more complicated than making one that will work on Earth. We've lost more than one Mars mission to giant dust storms that leave drifts of sand on solar panels, preventing the machinery from being able to generate power, for instance. Gravity is another one. The Solar System bodies on which we have deployed robotic rovers have lower gravity than Earth, and this has an effect on how things move around. Engineers, when designing rovers, have therefore taken into account the effects the target gravitational environment will have. Nevertheless, rovers still manage to get stuck pretty often, requiring control teams to conduct a series of maneuvers to try and free the poor robot. It's usually fine, if annoying, although in one notable case it was not: NASA's Mars rover Spirit got stuck in soft soil in 2009, and there it remains to this day. Using computer simulations running on a physics-based engine called Project Chrono, Negrut and his colleagues set out to get to the bottom of this recurring problem. Comparing their results with real-world tests on sandy surfaces revealed a discrepancy that pointed right to it. Previous tests of rover designs in Moon- and Mars-simulated dirt omitted one very, very important detail: sand, also, behaves differently under different gravitational conditions. The dust that coats the Moon and Mars is fluffier and squishier than dust on Earth, shifting more easily, and hindering traction – making it far easier for their wheels to get stuck. Think of a vehicle on Earth that has driven into slippery mud, or very loose desert sand. This eureka moment could be the missing piece of the puzzle that could keep future space exploration rovers out of a dusty jam. "It's rewarding that our research is highly relevant in helping to solve many real-world engineering challenges," Negrut says. "I'm proud of what we've accomplished. It's very difficult as a university lab to put out industrial-strength software that is used by NASA." The research has been published in the Journal of Field Robotics. Related News Wild New Theory Suggests Gravitational Waves Shaped The Universe August's Full Sturgeon Moon Is Here: What It Is And How to See It An Astrophysicist Proposes We Send a Spacecraft to Visit a Black Hole Solve the daily Crossword