New research provides fresh insight into the early stages of planetary formation. A team of astrophysicists has conducted computer simulations suggesting that nascent gas giant planets born within protostellar disks could exhibit significantly flattened geometries. This finding, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, may reshape our understanding of planetary origins.
A cosmic needle in a haystack
While spotting exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) is becoming more common, finding still-forming protoplanets embedded in their birth disks is like finding that proverbial needle. Only three of these cosmic infants have been discovered so far.
To 'see' them requires extremely powerful telescopes and a cosmic lucky break – planets only form over a few million years, a mere tick of the clock on the scales of the universe.
