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Planets are formed from the cosmic dust and gas present in the protoplanetary disks that surround the stars, material that collides and gradually adds until it has enough gravity so that everything remains cohesive and a new world is born. Because a group of astronomers managed to capture images of this process hundreds of light years away from Earth, something that has never before been obtained with such rich detail.
Planetary motherhood
Scientists know how planet formation occurs and protoplanetary disks, which basically function as planetary maternity hospitals, have been observed countless times. However, this is the first time that the process itself has been observed and photographed in such detail. Look down:
Birth of new worlds.Source: The Atlantic / Jacques Kluska, et al / Reproduction
It may not seem like a big deal, but previous observations of protoplanetary disks resulted in images at much lower resolutions than what you just saw, and thus revealed much less information to scientists. To give you an idea, although most of us don’t see much of the photos, astronomers can identify planetary formation patterns and characterize the properties of the disks.
In the case of the observations we share with you, the astronomers used a technique known as infrared interferometry, and used the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in the Atacama desert, in Chile, to capture the images. The method is relatively new for this type of observation and, as you have seen, it does not generate a photo by itself, but it does allow you to obtain an immense amount of data.
Then, using mathematical models and information processing, the scientists were able to eliminate the light emitted by the stars in the center of the disks and identify details that other observation techniques do not always allow. Just for comparison, astronomers said that through this technique, it is as if they could study hair that is 10 kilometers away.
And do you want to know where in the images you can see planets “being born”? Did you notice that there are more and fewer bright spots in the photos? According to the astronomers who made the observations, they indicate possible instabilities in the protoplanetary disk that can give rise to vortices that, in turn, can generate a greater accumulation of gas and cosmic dust, causing agglomeration and the accumulation of materials that, eventually, they will cause the emergence of a new planet.
