Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2025

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 planet formation are quite robust and can operate even under chal- lenging circumstances,” Huang noted. “This gives us more confi- dence that planets may be forming in even more places throughout the galaxy, even in regions we previ- ously thought were too harsh.” The findings have implications for understanding the formation of our own Solar System, which likely evolved in a similarly high-radiation environment. They also motivate future studies of disks in even more extreme stellar neighborhoods. The research team used ALMA’s most extended antenna configura- tion to obtain unprecedented detail in their disk images, achieving a res- olution of about 8 astronomical units. This allowed them to resolve multiple distinct gaps and rings in several of the disks. While the exact nature of these disk structures is still debated, they are thought to be either conducive to planet formation or a consequence of interactions between forming planets and the disk material. This study demonstrates the power of ALMA to probe planet formation in diverse environments across the galaxy. As astronomers build a more complete picture of how planets form under different condi- tions, they come closer to under- standing the origins of Earth and the prevalence of planets around other stars. I mages cap- tured by ALMA’s most extended an- tenna configu- ration reveal surprisingly rich disk structures in the sigma Ori cluster. [ALMA (ESO/JAO/ NAOJ/NRAO), J. Huang et. al.] !