This process can snowball into kilometer-sized "planetesimals," which one day grow into full planets. In our home Solar System, the crystalline minerals that were the starter dough for Earth and ...

Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of planets forming around HOPS-315, a baby star located 1,300 light-years away.

The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby ...

Weighing in at 0.6 solar mass, HOPS-315 should someday grow to become a star much like our own sun; this makes it a promising stand-in for studying the first stages of our solar system’s history. For ...

Astronomers have captured a rare glimpse inside HOPS-315, a young star that appears to sit at the center of a nascent version of our own solar system.