what did they just find?

Apparently in a far away ice disk astronomers saw something baffling!  There have been a few times recently where they spotted gassy disks that are likely the first signs of newly formed planets.  However, these sightings have been fairly rare and this one was not expected.  In addition the particles in this particular viewing are very different than normal:

A team of Japanese astronomers has recently observed a protoplanetary disk covered in ice, which could lead to a better understanding of water’s role in the formation of planets.

The ice-rich circumstellar disk orbits HD 100546, a hot young star with 2.4 times the mass of our Sun and 36 times its luminosity. It’s located 320 light-years from Earth and it is estimated to be 10 million years old. The star is orbited by a large gas planet 17.5 times the mass of Jupiter at 6.5 AU (1 astronomical unit, AU, is the average Earth-Sun distance).

Let’s find out more about this mysterious find on page 2

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