The birth environment of planetary systems.

ABSTRACT: Star and planet formation are inextricably linked. In the earliest phases of the collapse of a protostar, a disc forms around the young star and such discs are observed for the first several million years of a star's life. It is within these circumstellar, or protoplanetary, discs that the first stages of planet formation occur. Recent observations from the Atacama large millimetre array (ALMA) suggest that planet formation may already be underway after only 1 Myr of a star's life. However, stars do not form in isolation; they form from the collapse and fragmentation of giant molecular clouds several parsecs in size. This results in young stars forming in groups-often referred to as 'clusters'. In these star-forming regions, the stellar density is much higher than the location of the Sun a

SUBMITTER: Parker RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7735350 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature