Latest news with #LeidenObservatory
Times of Oman
20-07-2025
- Science
- Times of Oman
Astronomers capture dawn of new solar system for 1st time
Astronomers have spotted the earliest known signs of rocky planet formation around a young, sun-like star for the first time. The discovery offers an unprecedented glimpse into what may have happened at the dawn of our own solar system. What did the researchers see? Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's ALMA array in Chile, researchers peered into the gas disk surrounding the infant star HOPS-315, about 1,370 light-years away. The star is just 100,000 to 200,000 years old — a newborn in cosmic terms — and is thought to be on its way to becoming a yellow dwarf like our sun. "We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said lead researcher Melissa McClure of Leiden Observatory. "For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now." "Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation," McClure said. The observations, published in the science journal Nature, show a glowing, lightning bug-like system against the dark void — a cosmic nursery where planets may one day emerge. While it's impossible to say how many planets HOPS-315 might produce, its massive gas disk could support as many as eight — just like our solar system — though that process may take a million years or more. How did the team carry out the research? Thanks to a tilt in the star's disk and a helpful gap in its outer region, the telescopes were able to detect signs of silicate minerals and silicon monoxide gas condensing. These are the very building blocks believed to have formed Earth and other rocky planets in our solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. The action is happening in a region similar to where our solar system's asteroid belt sits — between Mars and Jupiter. These early-stage solids had never been directly observed in such young systems before, leaving scientists unsure whether Earth's origin story was a rare case. What might it mean? Fred Ciesla of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study, called it a long-awaited breakthrough. "This is one of the things we've been waiting for," he said. "There's a rich opportunity here." Astronomers hope similar discoveries will reveal how common planet formation is — and whether Earth-like worlds are a universal phenomenon or a rare cosmic fluke.
DW
20-07-2025
- Science
- DW
Astronomers capture dawn of new solar system for 1st time – DW – 07/20/2025
In a cosmic first, astronomers have spotted the earliest signs of rocky planet formation around a young star. The discovery offers a rare vision of how Earth-like worlds may begin. Astronomers have spotted the earliest known signs of rocky planet formation around a young, sun-like star for the first time. The discovery offers an unprecedented glimpse into what may have happened at the dawn of our own solar system. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's ALMA array in Chile, researchers peered into the gas disk surrounding the infant star HOPS-315, about 1,370 light-years away. The star is just 100,000 to 200,000 years old — a newborn in cosmic terms — and is thought to be on its way to becoming a yellow dwarf like our sun. "We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said lead researcher Melissa McClure of Leiden Observatory. "For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now." "Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation," McClure said. The observations, published in the science journal Nature, show a glowing, lightning bug-like system against the dark void — a cosmic nursery where planets may one day emerge. While it's impossible to say how many planets HOPS-315 might produce, its massive gas disk could support as many as eight — just like our solar system — though that process may take a million years or more. Thanks to a tilt in the star's disk and a helpful gap in its outer region, the telescopes were able to detect signs of silicate minerals and silicon monoxide gas condensing. These are the very building blocks believed to have formed Earth and other rocky planets in our solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. The action is happening in a region similar to where our solar system's asteroid belt sits — between Mars and Jupiter. These early-stage solids had never been directly observed in such young systems before, leaving scientists unsure whether Earth's origin story was a rare case. Fred Ciesla of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study, called it a long-awaited breakthrough. "This is one of the things we've been waiting for," he said. "There's a rich opportunity here." Astronomers hope similar discoveries will reveal how common planet formation is — and whether Earth-like worlds are a universal phenomenon or a rare cosmic fluke. "Are there Earth-like planets out there," asked co-author Merel van't Hoff of Purdue University, "or are we so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?"
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
James Webb Spots Planets Forming Into Solar System in Real Time, Like an Organism's First Cells
Astronomers have spotted a planetary system being conceived from the swirl of gas and dust surrounding a star — giving us an unprecedented, real-time look at how our solar system would've formed some 4.6 billion years ago. The findings, published as a study in the journal Nature, are the first time we're seeing such an early stage of planets being formed anywhere in the cosmos. "We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," lead author Melissa McClure at the Leiden Observatory told the Associated Press. "For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now." Inchoate planetary systems have been spotted before — but they were further along in their development. Instead, what's been captured here, using the James Webb Telescope and the ALMA telescope in Chile, is roughly the equivalent of an organism's first cells being formed. The baby star, or protostar, orchestrating the system's birth is HOPS-315, a G-type star like our Sun — though much younger — located some 1,370 light years away in the constellation Orion. HOPS-315 is surrounded by a hot, rotating circumstellar envelope of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disk. There, the astronomers spotted reservoirs of matter condensing together to form solid mineral grains. Over millions of years, the mineral grains will cool off and coalesce to form larger planetesimals, which serve as building blocks of a nascent planet — either going straight to being a rocky planet like Earth, or the solid core of a giant planet like Jupiter or Uranus. Crucially, the building materials the astronomers detected were silicon monoxide gas and crystalline silicate minerals, which are believed to have played a major role in our own system's birth. "This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disk — or anywhere outside our solar system," co-author Edwin Bergin, a professor at the University of Michigan, said in a statement about the work. Per the AP, the solid formation is taking place in a location equivalent to the asteroid belt in our own star system between Mars and Jupiter, where the leftover materials of our system's planet forming years can still be found. Asteroids are ancient planetesimals that never got a chance to make it big, still harboring stores of silicon monoxide and crystalline silicate that astronomers have dated to estimate the timeline of the solar system's formation. The silicon monoxode and crystalline silicate were first spotted by the James Webb, indicating the presence of a protoplanetary disk. But the data wasn't clear enough to determine the exact location they were originating around the star. Fortuitously, Nature noted, the disk was oriented in a way that allowed astronomers to see it unobstructed by HOPS-315's outflow, a highly energetic jet of material that fell onto the star before being blasted into space. Outflows tend to overpower the infrared spectrum that astronomers favor to inspect dense regions like a protoplanetary disk. Thanks to the disk's orientation, though, the ALMA telescope was able to pinpoint the mineral signal's origins to a location about 2.2 astronomical units away from the star, or about 2.2 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. "We're really seeing these minerals at the same location in this extrasolar system as where we see them in asteroids in the Solar System," co-author Logan Francis, a researcher at Leiden University, said in the statement. Many aspects of our solar system's origins remain a mystery, and astronomers can't confidently say how unique its formation is. Can we use it as a blueprint for how planetary systems form throughout the cosmos, or are we a relative oddity? HOPS-315 suggests we have at least a handful of peers. To know for sure, we'll have to check back on how it's doing in a few million years — or more realistically, the James Webb and ALMA telescope will spot more burgeoning systems for us to pry into. More on astronomy: James Webb Space Telescope Spots Stellar Death Shrouds Solve the daily Crossword
NDTV
17-07-2025
- Science
- NDTV
Astronomers Capture Planet Birth Around Baby Sun Outside Solar System
Cape Canaveral, Fla: Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It's an unprecedented snapshot of "time zero," scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel. "We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said Leiden Observatory's Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. "For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now." The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicago's Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature. "This is one of the things we've been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time," Ciesla said. "There's a rich opportunity here." NASA's Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It's a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles. In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing - signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth. They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what's believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system's planets. The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, "so we didn't know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system," McClure said in an email. "Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation." While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, there's been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said. In a stunning picture taken by the ESO's Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void. It's impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the sun's might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure. Purdue University's Merel van 't Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds. "Are there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?"
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers capture the birth of planets around a baby sun outside our solar system
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It's an unprecedented snapshot of 'time zero,' scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel. 'We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said Leiden Observatory's Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. 'For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now.' The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicago's Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature. 'This is one of the things we've been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time," Ciesla said. 'There's a rich opportunity here.' NASA's Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It's a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles. In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing — signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth. They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what's believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system's planets. The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, 'so we didn't know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system,' McClure said in an email. 'Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation.' While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, there's been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said. In a stunning picture taken by the ESO's Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void. It's impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the sun's might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure. Purdue University's Merel van 't Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds. 'Are there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?" ___ AP video journalist Javier Arciga contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
