News Planetary Science

This star offers the earliest peek at the birth of a planetary system like ours

The surrounding gas and dust might be producing the first bits of planets

Gas blowing away from a baby star are shaped like a butterfly. They're outlined in orange, representing carbon monoxide gas, with some splotches of orange inside. Some blue blotches run in a horizontal line across the wings, showing a jet with silicon monoxide gas.

The swirling disk of gas and dust (center black dot) around a baby star might be birthing a solar system, according to a new study. Farther from the star, called HOPS 315, carbon monoxide gas (orange) blows away in a butterfly-shaped wind and silicon monoxide gas (blue) is expelled in a jet of disk material.