The clearest ever image of planets forming around an infant star has been taken by the Alma radio telescope.
In a vast disc of dust and gas, dark rings are clearly visible: gaps in the cloud, swept clear by brand new planets in orbit.
The sun-like star at the centre, HL Tau, is less than a million years old and is 450 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
The image was made possible by Alma’s new high-resolution capabilities.Because the process of planet formation takes place in the midst of such a huge dust cloud, it cannot be observed using visible light.
Alma, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has snapped the impressive new image using much longer wavelengths, which it detects by comparing the signal from multiple antennas up to 15km apart.
To test out its latest high-resolution capability, only in operation since September, Alma scientists pointed the antennas at HL Tau. They found themselves looking at a “protoplanetary disc” in more detail than ever before.