HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming

How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound ALMA.

The observations show, among other things, that large cosmic dust grains are more concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the active Herbig-Haro 30 system.

Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red, while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting space clouds are seen in a parabolic arc above and below the central disk, although why a tail appears on the lower left is currently unknown.

Studying how planets form in Herbig-Haro 30 can help astronomers better understand how planets in our own Solar System once formed, including our Earth.