'Baby Jupiter' discovered in the process of forming around a star 500 light-years away

By Peter Tuthill , Barnaby Norris published about 8 hours ago

The discovery could help scientists understand how planets form.



Artist’s impression of a giant planet forming. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI))


How do planets form? For many years scientists thought they understood this process by studying the one example we had access to: our own solar system.

However, the discovery of planets around distant stars in the 1990s made it clear that the picture was much more complicated than we knew.

In new research(opens in new tab), we have spotted a hot, Jupiter-like gas giant in the process of forming around a star about 500 light-years from Earth.

This rare babysnap of a planet actually in the process of forming, drawing down matter from a vast disk of dust and gas swirling around its also-infant sun, has opened a window on mysteries that have puzzled astronomers for years.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/baby-jupiter-forms-500-light-years-away