Astronomers observe birth of a solar system for first time
The new planetary system is forming around the baby star HOPS-315 - which resembles our own sun in its youth - 1,300 light years from Earth in the Orion Nebula.
Young stars are surrounded by massive rings of gas and dust called protoplanetary discs, which is where planets form.
Inside these swirling discs, crystalline minerals that contain the chemical silicon monoxide can clump together.
This process can snowball into kilometre-sized "planetesimals", which one day grow into full planets.
In our home solar system, the crystalline minerals that were the starter dough for Earth and Jupiter's core are believed to have been trapped in ancient meteorites.
Now astronomers have spotted signs that suggest these hot minerals are starting to solidify in the disc surrounding HOPS-315, according to a new study in the journal Nature.
"For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our sun," lead study author Melissa McClure of Leiden University in the Netherlands said.
The minerals around the star were first spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Then the astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's ALMA telescope in Chile to find out exactly where the chemical signals were coming from.
They discovered that these minerals are in a small portion of the disc which is similar to the asteroid belt that surrounds our sun.
This will allow scientists to watch the process that may have birthed our home planet.
"We're seeing a system that looks like what our solar system looked like when it was just beginning to form," said study co-author Merel van 't Hoff of Purdue University in the US.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Baby lizard hatched at British zoo after extremely rare ‘virgin birth'
A BABY lizard was hatched at a British zoo following an extremely rare 'virgin birth'. Izzy the eastern casquehead iguana was conceived with no male involvement. She hatched from one of two marble-sized eggs laid by five-year-old female Alma, which went through parthenogenesis — a form of reproduction when an embryo develops from an unfertilised egg. The process, which happens in fewer than one in 1,000 vertebrate births, sees the body find a way of filling in for genes usually provided by sperm. Izzy, whose species is native to Central and South America, was born on Sunday at Battersea Park Children's Zoo in South West London. Manager Jamie Baker, 30, said: 'We were amazed. "We've no male eastern casquehead iguanas so when we discovered one of our females had laid eggs, it was exciting. 'We didn't think they'd hatch but decided to incubate them anyway as we were aware that the species have been known to reproduce via parthenogenesis.' He said Izzy, a genetic clone of her mum, was about the size of an adult little finger. He said: 'She's growing well. "She's in her nursery enclosure feeding on fruit flies and tiny crickets. 'We're keeping her on her own because if we left her in with the adults they'd eat her. Moment iguana casually crawls onto tennis court before worker is forced to shoo it away "They're not an animal that gives parental care. 'Our priority is to get Izzy to a good enough size so that she can move in with the adults.'
Irish Examiner
30-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Sexual assault defendants and complainants equally prone to memory gaps, study says
Both defendants and complainants in sexual assault cases are equally prone to memory distortions, new research suggests. The results of the study from University College Dublin and University College Cork puts a focus on why complainants' memories in sexual assault cases are scrutinised in court when the accused can be equally prone to error. Published in Nature's Scientific Reports, the 'He Said, She Said' study involved a series of experiments using an immersive first-person video playing out a date scenario. Those taking part were later assigned the role of either the complainant or the accused before being shown fabricated 'witness' accounts that included misleading details and altered key facts from the video. For example, some participants were shown testimony from a barman claiming that the accused was plying the complainant with drinks, even though this was not in the original video. The study found that individuals in the role of both complainant and accused were equally likely to absorb and recall false details, even when those details supported their assigned narrative. There were more than 1,300 participants in three separate experiments. 'We hope that this study will encourage people to re-examine their assumptions regarding the role of memory in sexual assault cases,' said lead author Associate Professor Ciara M Greene of UCD School of Psychology. 'We have noticed that these cases often hinge on discussions of the complainant's memory. 'As memory scientists, we find this strange, since we know that everyone — male or female, complainant or accused — is human and has the same memory frailties. 'This study provides concrete evidence that memory errors and distortions are not unique to one side of contentious legal cases.' For the study, two versions of the simulated date were filmed, one featuring a male actor and the other featuring a female actor. The two videos were identical in all other respects, with each filmed from the perspective of a person going on a date with the man or the woman. The first cohort of participants in both roles received the same misinformation details (experiment 1), wherein those in experiment 2 and 3 were provided misinformation that was tailored to their assigned roles — that is, information designed to make the sexual assault appear more likely or less likely to have occurred. Strong misinformation effects were observed in both groups, with the complainant and accused equally likely to misremember details of the events leading up to the sexual encounter. The study included both male and female victims and perpetrators, but interestingly found that memory distortion effects were not affected by gender. While the study was based on fictional scenarios, its authors argue it highlights that memory is reconstructive and subject to bias, regardless of one's role in a dispute. Co-author and Associate Professor Gillian Murphy said: 'We have a responsibility as memory scientists to banish myths about memory. 'In our book and in this paper, we stress that our memories mostly serve us very well and provide a good account of our experiences, but they can sometimes be prone to error, no matter what side of the courtroom you're on.'
RTÉ News
24-07-2025
- RTÉ News
UCC palaeontologists discover new fossil reptile species
An international team of researchers, including palaeontologists at University College Cork (UCC), has discovered a new species of fossil reptile from the Triassic period that had a large crest made of complex plume-like structures - long before modern-type feathers evolved. The 247-million-year-old Mirasaura grauvogeli, from the Grès à Voltzia locality in northeastern France, had a bizarre showy plume of long outer layer structures. These share similarities with feathers, despite existing 70 million years before the oldest fossil feathers. The research, published today in the journal Nature, includes UCC palaeontologists Prof Maria McNamara, Dr Valentina Rossi and Dr Tiffany Slater. The study was led by an international team from Germany, Italy, France and the USA. The UCC team analysed the fossil outer layer structures, using scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray analyses. The fossil tissue is rich in cell organelles that contain melanin pigments that are common in skin, hair, feathers and internal organs of fossil and modern vertebrate animals. The team in Cork discovered that the melanosomes in Mirasaura are similar in shape to those in feathers, but not mammal hair or reptilian skin. "We know that in modern animals, melanosome shape is closely linked to tissue type," said Dr Rossi. "We can therefore be confident that the Mirasaura structures share some common developmental features with feathers". Unlike feathers in modern birds, however, the Mirasaura structures lack branching, showing instead a simple long, medial feature that superficially resembles the shaft of modern bird feathers. "We were looking in the right time window, but we were shocked to find long integumentary structures in a completely different group of ancient reptiles," said Prof McNamara. "The next step is to consider the effects of fossilisation. "By integrating this with more detailed characterisation of the fossil tissues, we will learn more about the shared history of the Mirasaura structures and other structures, such as feathers." Dr Slater said: "It's amazing - this creature forces us back to the drawing board for when feather-like structures first evolved. Mirasaura reveals a deeper, more complex evolutionary story than we ever expected."
