The birth of planets around a star observed

For the first time, astrophysicists observed with precision the moment when planets begin to form around a star other than the sun.

What they have seen appear are spots corresponding to hot minerals that are starting to solidify around the Hops-315 star which is found at some 1300 light years from the earth.

The observation of a planetary system at such an early stage of its training allows us to better understand the past of our own solar systemsaid Melissa McClure, professor of astrophysics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and the main author of the study published in the journal Nature (in English).

These detections were carried out thanks to the Alma and James Webb telescopes.

Closer to the beginning

In our solar system, the very first solid materials to condense near the current position of the earth are trapped in old meteoritessaid in a press release the Austral European Observatory (ESO).

Still today, it is by analyzing the composition of these essential rocks that astronomers succeed in specifying the beginning of the formation of the solar system.

These meteorites are rich in crystalline minerals containing silicon monoxide, which can be condensed at extremely high temperatures, characteristics of young planetary diskscan be read in the press release.

Over time, these newly formed solids aggregate, laying the basics of planetary training by gradually gaining in size and mass.

So, Pieces of solid matter reaching the size of a kilometer end up giving birth to planets like the earth.

Concrete evidence

The authors of the present work found the first indices of hot minerals that begin to condense in the disc around Dehops-315.

Their data shows that silicon monoxide is present around the young star in the gas state, as well as inside these crystal minerals, which suggests that it has only been starting to solidify.

This process has never been observed before in a protoplanetary disc, nor nowhere else outside our solar systemexplains Edwin Bergin, professor at the University of Michigan and also co -author of the study.

Spatial collaboration

Crystalline minerals were initially identified using the James Webb space telescope in solar orbit 1.5 million kilometers from the earth.

Then, to identify the exact provenance of the mineral signals, the researchers used the large network of millimeter/submillimetric antennae of Atacama (Alma) located in the Atacama desert, in Chile.

The analysis of the data collected made it possible to determine that the chemical signals came from a small region of the disc around the star, equivalent to the orbit of the asteroid belt around the sun.

We really observe these minerals in the same place in this extrasolar system as in the asteroids of the solar systemnote the postdoctoral researcher Logan Francis, of the University of Leiden and co -author of the study.

Our cosmic history

The authors of this work think that the disc of HOPS-315 is an interesting object of comparison to understand Our own cosmic story.

This system is one of the best we know to explore some of the processes that have occurred in our solar systemComments Merel Van ‘T Hoff, the main co-author of the study and professor at Purdue University, in the United States.

In the coming years, several research teams will analyze the information collected by the two telescopes. One thing is certain, this study shows that the combined power of these two telescopes makes it possible to scrutinize the protoplanetary discs like never before.