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Astronomers Observed that They Have Captured the Beginning of Solar System Around Infant Star, HOPS-315

Astronomers use readings by JWST and ALMA to detect what they believe to be condensation that will eventually lead to planet formation.
PUBLISHED 13 HOURS AGO
Artist's concept of a protoplanetary disk. A system is forming. - stock illustration (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images| Photo by  Stocktrek Images)
Artist's concept of a protoplanetary disk. A system is forming. - stock illustration (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images| Photo by Stocktrek Images)

The solar system is the abode of humans. However, very little is known about its origin. A recent finding by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could bring researchers one step closer to resolving this mystery. The findings are explained in detail in the journal Nature. ALMA and JWST have detected the formation of a planetary system in space that could one day resemble the solar system. This presumed similarity has given researchers hope that the finding will provide insights into how the massive solar system originated around 4.6 billion years ago. 

Protoplanetary disk (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by Pat Rawlings / NASA Source)
Protoplanetary disk (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by Pat Rawlings / NASA Source)

Planetary System around HOPS-315

Through readings by ALMA and JWST, astronomers have been able to pinpoint the formation of certain material that will possibly become planets around 1,300 light-years away from Earth, according to Space. This detection is valuable as it is happening around an infant star called HOPS-315. If the assertion is true, then it is the first time astronomers have detected what they believe to be one of the earliest steps in the process of planet formation around a star apart from the sun. They believe the formation around HOPS-315 could be similar to what unfolded around the sun when the solar system was taking its first steps

ALMA Image of HOPS-315 (Image Source: European Southern Observatory)
ALMA Image of HOPS-315 (Image Source: European Southern Observatory)

Discovery of Crystalline Minerals

Before this observation, astronomers had located protoplanetary discs around infant stars like HOPS-315, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO). These discs are composed of gas and dust, which participate in the formation of planets. In previous investigations, experts detected new and massive Jupiter-like planets inside these discs, being created with gas and dust. They always felt that planet formation did not begin with this assimilation of gas and dust. They speculated that the first solid constituents of planets happened even further back in time, and called them planetesimals. This finding sheds light on the formation of these constituents.

For the solar system, the components of these planetesimals are assumed to be locked inside ancient meteorites. During the investigation of these meteorites, experts found that these rocks are filled with crystalline minerals containing silicon monoxide (SiO). These minerals were also noted to undergo condensation at extremely high temperatures, a condition which is also present inside planetary discs. After the condensation of the crystalline minerals, a planetesimal was formed in the solar system.

In the new finding, researchers have supposedly spotted the condensation of hot crystalline minerals, which they believe will eventually become planetesimals, much like what they suggest happened in the solar system. The readings also indicate that silicon monoxide (SiO), which was uncovered in the crystalline minerals of meteorites, is also present in the gas around HOPS-315 and in the material that is getting condensed at the site. "This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disc — or anywhere outside our Solar System," said co-author Edwin Bergin, a professor at the University of Michigan, USA.

Detection of the Phenomena

The minerals were spotted using the JWST, after which ALMA was consulted to determine the specific location where these objects resided. The data indicated that the minerals were present in a disc around HOPS-315. The experts further noted that the disc was around the size of the asteroid belt's orbit surrounding 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," explained co-author Logan Francis, a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University. Researchers were delighted as such similarities made the phenomenon a great proxy to study early planet formation in the solar system. 

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