The moment of birth was observed for the first time: History will be rewritten...

An international research team led by Melissa McClure of the Leiden Observatory has directly observed the hot zone where rocky planets like Earth are born for the first time. "We can say with certainty that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now," McClure said.

These significant observations were made by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in collaboration with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. The star studied is called HOPS-315, a Sun-like star only 100,000 to 200,000 years old. It lies approximately 1,370 light-years from Earth.

By looking deep into the gas disk surrounding HOPS-315, the team directly detected the formation of solid particles. The star's inclination toward Earth allowed them to obtain a clear view of the disk's internal structure.

The observations detected silicon monoxide gas and crystalline silicate minerals. These substances are believed to be the building blocks of the first solid components of our solar system, formed 4.5 billion years ago. These structures were reported to have formed in a region similar to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

'WE DID NOT KNOW, WE SAW THAT IT COULD BE COMMON'

McClure emphasized that such hot minerals have never been observed before around young stars: "So we didn't know whether this was a universal process or a feature specific to our solar system. Our study suggests this process may be widespread."

Although not involved in the research, Fred Ciesla of the University of Chicago said the findings offer a unique window into nascent planetary systems. "This is something astronomers have been waiting for a long time," Ciesla said.

In images obtained by ESO's ALMA telescope network, the developing planetary system of HOPS-315 appears like a glowing firefly in the dark void. It's not yet known how many planets will form around this star. However, according to McClure, even an eight-planet system could be possible if the disk is as large as the Sun's.

Merel van 't Hoff, a co-author of the study from Purdue University, expressed her eagerness to explore similar systems. She said that with more examples, we can understand the formation processes of Earth-like planets and explore the unique nature of Earth.