Stars and their planetary systems are born from clouds of gas and dust that collapse into swirling disks. Astronomers can’t directly see planets forming in these disks because they’re hidden in all the debris. But in the past few years, new kinds of telescopes have started to reveal gaps in disks around young stars where planets might be forming.
Now, astronomers have seen gas flowing in toward the gaps in one of those disks, as they reported Wednesday in Nature. The finding will help astronomers understand how planets collect the gases that make up their atmospheres. It’s also a sign that those gases “waterfall” down from higher up in the disk — not just the so-called mid-plane where the planets are forming.
And, thanks to a computer model, the team of scientists behind the study showed that planets in those locations can explain the gas motions the researchers saw. With ...
