This artist’s impression of the Solar System shows the sizes, but not the distances, of the planets to scale. Image credit: The International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser.

The science of how solar systems begin

From a speculative story to solid science!

“The new ALMA images show the disk in unprecedented detail, revealing a series of concentric dusty bright rings and dark gaps, including intriguing features that suggest a planet with an Earth-like orbit is forming there.”
-Sean Andrews

The question of “where do solar systems come from” has now been scientifically answered and verified.

The very young protostar M17-SO1, as imaged with the Subaru telescope. Image credit: Subaru / NAOJ.

Deep inside star-forming nebulae, dense regions of gas collapse to become hot and dense at their centers.

30 protoplanetary disks, or proplyds, as imaged by Hubble in the Orion Nebula. Image credit: NASA/ESA and L. Ricci (ESO).

These central regions first glow in infrared light, while the material surrounding the center “pancakes” into a disk shape.

The young star 2MASS J16281370–2431391 is surrounded by a disc of gas and dust seen nearly edge-on: a protoplanetary disk. Image credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2/NASA/ESA.

The disk rotates, and tiny densities imperfections form within it. In the densest regions, mass begins to clump together, creating the first…