For the first time, astronomers witness a new solar system born some 1400 light-years away

Amazing stuff!

"Some 1400 light-years away, a solar system is just getting started. Researchers have observed clouds of gas and mineral solids that appear to be the beginnings of rocky worlds, they reported this week. “It really is the first time we’ve seen this stage of planet formation in the process,” one expert noted."

From the abstract:

"Terrestrial planets and small bodies in our Solar System are theorized to have assembled from interstellar solids mixed with rocky solids that precipitated from a hot, cooling gas. The first high-temperature minerals to recondense from this gaseous reservoir start the clock on planet formation. However, the production mechanism of this initial hot gas and its importance to planet formation in other systems are unclear.

Here we report the astronomical detection of this t = 0 moment, capturing the building blocks of a new planetary system beginning its assembly. The young protostar HOPS-315 is observed at infrared and millimetre wavelengths with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), revealing a reservoir of warm silicon monoxide gas and crystalline silicate minerals low in the atmosphere of a disk within 2.2 au of the star, physically isolated from the millimetre SiO jet. Comparison with condensation models with rapid grain growth and disk structure models suggests the formation of refractory solids analogous to those in our Solar System. Our results indicate that the environment in the inner disk region is influenced by sublimation of interstellar solids and subsequent refractory solid recondensation from this gas reservoir on timescales comparable with refractory condensation in our own Solar System."

ScienceAdviser

This star offers the earliest peek at the birth of a planetary system like ours "The surrounding gas and dust might be producing the first bits of planets"

For the first time, astronomers witness the dawn of a new solar system (original news release) "International researchers have, for the first time, pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star beyond the Sun. Using the ALMA telescope, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, and the James Webb Space Telescope, they have observed the creation of the first specks of planet-forming material — hot minerals just beginning to solidify. This finding marks the first time a planetary system has been identified at such an early stage in its formation and opens a window to the past of our own Solar System."

Refractory solid condensation detected in an embedded protoplanetary disk (no public access, but ScienceAdvisor contains link to PDF.

The swirling disk of gas and dust (center black dot) around a baby star might be birthing a solar system, according to a new study. Farther from the star, called HOPS 315, carbon monoxide gas (orange) blows away in a butterfly-shaped wind and silicon monoxide gas (blue) is expelled in a jet of disk material.