Scientists have watched another solar system being born for the first ever time.
Using a powerful telescope, researchers saw the first pieces of material that will go onto form planets.
A solar system has never been seen this early in its formation before. Researchers hope that the breakthrough discovery will allow for a new understanding of how such systems form – including our own.
The findings are like “a picture of the baby Solar System”, said Merel van ‘t Hoff, a professor at Purdue University, USA, and a co-author on the new study. “We’re seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form.”
The work is described in a new paper, ‘Refractory solid condensation detected in an embedded protoplanetary disk’, published in the journal Nature.
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