Astronomers have observed the earliest stage of planet formation around a distant young star — for the first time ever. The baby star, called HOPS-315, is located about 1,300 light years away in the Orion Nebula and is similar to what our Sun looked like in its early years.
Planets form in discs of gas and dust that surround young stars, known as protoplanetary discs. Inside these discs, crystalline minerals—made of silicon monoxide—can start to stick together. Over time, these particles grow into planetesimals, which are the building blocks of planets.
Scientists found signs of these minerals starting to solidify around HOPS-315, marking the very first stage of planet formation. This is the first time such a process has been directly observed outside our own Solar System.
The discovery was made using the James Webb Space Telescope and confirmed by Chile’s ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array). The minerals were concentrated in a part of the disc similar to our asteroid belt, which may give clues about how Earth and Jupiter began forming.
Researchers say this moment is like looking back in time at how our own Solar System formed. “We’re seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning,” said study co-author Merel van’t Hoff.