A team of scientists has discovered that the planets begin forming while stars are still infants and they grow up together like siblings.
According to a recent study conducted by the Centre of Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), planet formation in a star system younger than 500,000 years old. It is a marked departure from previously accepted theories of planet formation and indicates that stars and planets grow up together like siblings.
Rings of dust have previously been detected in great numbers in systems older than one million years, and prior to the study, scientists believed that stars are well into adulthood before planets to begin to form. Observations of IRS 63 — a young protostar located 470 light years from Earth, deep within the dense LI709 interstellar cloud in the constellation Ophiuchus — revealed that this may not be the case after all.
At less than half the age of other young stars with dust rings — and younger than 500,000 years old — IRS 63 has a long way to go in gathering mass, and yet, planets have already begun to form.
“We observed the young protoplanetary disk called IRS 63 and found gaps and rings within the disk, which is indicative of planet formation,” said Ian Stephens, astronomer, CfA. “Traditionally, it was thought that a star does most of its formation before the planets form, but our observations showed that they form simultaneously.” (ANI)
