Water from space is 'raining' onto a planet-forming disc at
supersonic speeds, new observations from the Spitzer Space
Telescope reveal. The unprecedented detail of the observations
at this early stage of the disc's formation could help reveal
which of two competing theories of planet formation is correct.
Planets form when matter clumps together in swirling discs of
gas and dust, called protoplanetary discs, around infant stars.
But many details of how this works are still not known. For
example, some scientists think giant planets can form in just a
few thousand years, while others argue it takes millions of
years. Now, astronomers led by Dan Watson of the University of
Rochester in New York, US, have gained an unprecedented view of
a protoplanetary disc at the young age of just a few hundred
thousand years old. They used the Spitzer Space Telescope to
examine the spectrum of infrared light coming from the vicinity
of an embryonic star called IRAS 4B, which lies about 1000 light
years from Earth. At this ve