Across the galaxy, stars are born in immense clouds of gas and dust — stellar nurseries where gravity coaxes material to coalesce and ignite. Around many of these newborn stars, the surrounding gas forms protoplanetary disks, dense fields of material from which planets can be born.
By studying these disks, astronomers travel back in time to glimpse events similar to those that shaped our own solar system over 4.5 billion years ago.
