Astronomers have found early ring and spiral structures in young planetary disks, indicating that planet formation begins much earlier than previously thought. This groundbreaking discovery, revealed through ALMA data, challenges existing models of planet formation and suggests a much faster timeline for the emergence of planetary structures. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Early Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time
Planet formation may occur much more rapidly than previously thought.
An international team of astronomers has found ring and spiral structures in very young planetary disks, demonstrating that planet formation may begin much earlier than once thought. The results were presented on Monday at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Using data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (
The evolutionary sequence of protoplanetary disks with substructures, from the ALMA CAMPOS survey. These wide varieties of planetary disk structures are possible formation sites for young protoplanets. Credit: Hsieh et al. in prep.
This new study shows that structure begins to form when the disks are about 300,000 years old, which is incredibly fast. Young disks can have multiple rings, and spiral structures, or evolve into a ring with a central cavity. These observations challenge our understanding of how planets form, particularly large
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) sits on the Chajnantor plains nearly 5,000 m above sea level and currently has 66 high-precision antennas working together at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. Credit: C. Padilla, NRAO/AUI/NSF
