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16h ago

Astronomers Capture Protoplanet Sculpting Disk and First Mineral Condensation in Planet-Forming Systems

These findings offer live analogues for Solar System origins by showing a planet carving its disk, followed by the condensation of refractory minerals into the first planetary solids.

Astronomers believe the spiral disk in this photograph may be evidence of a planet forming around the young star HD 135344B. The location of this potential planet is indicated with a white circle. The central black circle corresponds to a coronagraph — a device that blocks the star's light to reveal details around it.
Image
Image
Image Credit: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Weber et al.

Overview

  • VLT’s new ERIS instrument directly imaged a Jupiter-mass protoplanet candidate at the base of a spiral arm in HD 135344B’s disk, marking the first direct sighting of a forming planet sculpting its natal disk.
  • The candidate protoplanet is estimated at roughly twice Jupiter’s mass and orbits its host star at a distance comparable to Neptune’s, with its own light detected through a coronagraph.
  • In the HOPS-315 system, JWST infrared spectroscopy and ALMA follow-up pinpointed high-temperature SiO gas condensing into crystalline refractory minerals—the inaugural evidence of solid formation in an extrasolar disk.
  • This mineral condensation defines a “t=0” moment for planetesimal formation, linking live observations to meteoritic analyses of the Solar System’s earliest solids.
  • Combined VLT/ERIS, JWST and ALMA capabilities are bridging the gap between theoretical models of disk dynamics and real-time views of the processes that built our own planetary neighborhood.