Planet Formation Seen In Unprecedented Detail

Space





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Shown is an image of the young system around HL Tauri. Carrasco-Gonzalez et al. / Bill Saxton / NRAO/AUI/NSF.

Planetary systems form from the same cosmic clouds that give birth to stars, but the exact mode of formation is still a matter of debate. In 2014, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile snapped a spectacular image of a planetary system forming around the star HL Tauri, which showed rings of material orbiting a star. Now, it's been seen in even better detail.