First time astronomers capture earliest signs of planet formation around a young star

Time of India

6 days ago

Source: European Southern Observatory
In a pioneering discovery for astronomy, scientists have captured the very first signs of
planet formation
around a young star, offering an unprecedented look at how planetary systems like our own might begin. Using two of the world's most powerful space observatories, the
James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST) and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile; researchers observed a distant, infant star known as
HOPS-315
, located about 1,300 light-years away in the Orion constellation.
This discovery doesn't just tell us more about the universe; it offers a time machine-like glimpse into how our own solar system may have formed around 4.6 billion years ago.
What is HOPS-315, and why is it key to understanding planet birth
HOPS-315 is what astronomers call a protostar—a very young star still in the early stages of development. It's surrounded by a dense envelope of gas and dust that hasn't yet been fully absorbed or cleared away. As gravity causes this material to collapse and rotate, it flattens into a disk around the star. This is known as a
protoplanetary disk
, and it's from this swirling structure that planets eventually form.
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Utilizing the combined power of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the
European Southern Observatory's
ALMA facility in Chile, scientists focused on HOPS-315, a young protostar located about 1,370 light-years away. Though similar in type to our sun, HOPS-315 is far younger, only 100,000 to 200,000 years old.
What makes HOPS-315 truly special is that it represents the earliest stage of planet formation ever directly observed outside our solar system. Until now, astronomers have mostly seen young stars with already-formed or forming planets. This is the first time they've captured the exact moment when dust begins turning into the solid building blocks of planets. 'This is the first time we've identified when planet formation actually begins around another star,' said Melissa McClure, the study's lead author from Leiden University.
How do new planets form from gas and dust around young stars?
Zoom into the baby star HOPS-315
The journey of a planet starts in the dusty remains of a newborn star. When a star forms from collapsing clouds of gas and dust in space, the leftover material forms a spinning disk. Inside this disk, temperatures vary, with the hottest regions closest to the star.
In these hot zones, gaseous elements begin to cool and condense into tiny solid crystals, a process known as mineral condensation. These crystals then clump together over time to form planetesimals, the mile-wide 'seeds' that eventually grow into full-fledged planets.
By observing HOPS-315, researchers were able to detect signs of this very process. They found silicon monoxide gas and crystals, key indicators that mineral condensation had just begun—marking the starting point of planet formation.
What meteorites reveal about early planet formation in our solar system
The clues about how planets form don't just come from distant stars—they also come from right here on Earth. Meteorites, the rocky fragments that fall to Earth from space, are essentially fossils from the
early solar system
. Many of these space rocks are believed to have formed at the same time as Earth and the other planets. Inside them, scientists have discovered high-temperature crystalline minerals like those now being seen around HOPS-315.
'These crystals are like time capsules,' explained Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan. 'They let us match what we see around distant stars with the history of our own solar system.'
How this discovery mirrors the formation of our own solar system
What's particularly striking about the new
observations
is that the crystalline materials around HOPS-315 were found at a distance from the star similar to where our solar system's asteroid belt is located in relation to the sun.
This similarity suggests that the conditions under which planetesimals form may follow consistent patterns across the universe—even in star systems vastly different from our own. 'We're seeing these minerals in exactly the same region we'd expect based on our solar system,' said Logan Francis, co-author and researcher at Leiden University.
Why HOPS-315 is being called a baby photo of Earth's solar system
This isn't just another distant star being studied; it's a direct window into the earliest moments of planetary evolution, one that mirrors the path our own Earth may have taken. Team member Merel van 't Hoff from Purdue University summed it up best: 'This system is like a baby photo of our solar system. It's one of the best examples we have to study how Earth, and everything else, first began.'
By observing HOPS-315, astronomers haven't just captured the formation of a new planetary system; they may have also unlocked secrets about our own origins. As telescopes grow more powerful, we're getting closer than ever to understanding the cosmic recipe that made Earth and life as we know it possible.
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