"Unveiling Planet Formation: Stunning Images and Groundbreaking Survey Capture Birth of Worlds"

The Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured stunning images revealing unique insights into planet formation around young stars, showcasing emerging planet systems that resemble miniature galaxies rather than debris disks. These images, one of the largest collections of its kind, frame over 80 young stars and their planet-forming disks in three major star-forming regions of the Milky Way galaxy. The observations present a shift in the field of study, offering astronomers a unique opportunity to study how planets are born and revealing a wide variety of planet-forming disks with significant differences based on their respective star-forming regions. The researchers hope to obtain more detailed images with the new Extremely Large Telescope in the future.