A team of Japanese astronomers has obtained firm evidence of the formation of a giant planetary system around a young star through observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This result has made a transformative impact on theories of planet formation and provides clues regarding the origin of a wide variety of planetary systems.

 The research team, led by astronomers at Osaka University and Ibaraki University, observed a young star named HD142527 in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) with ALMA. The ALMA image shows that cosmic dust, a component material of planets, is circling around the star in an asymmetric ring. By measuring the density of the dust in the densest part of the ring, the astronomers found that it is highly likely that planets are now being formed in that region. That region is far from HD142527, about 5 times greater than the distance between the Sun and Neptune. This is the first firm evidence linking planet formation found at such a great distance from the central star in a protoplanetary disk. The research team plans further observations of HD142527 with ALMA for closer investigation, as well as of other protoplanetary disks, to help gain a comprehensive understanding of planet formation in general.

(Link) http://resou.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/research/2014/20140117_1