"Stunning Image Captures the Spectacular Formation of Jupiter-Like Planets"
Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have observed clumps in the dust cloud surrounding a young star named V960 Mon, which could potentially collapse and form giant planets like Jupiter. This discovery provides valuable insights into the formation of these massive worlds and sheds light on the two possible formation routes for gas giant planets: core accretion and gravitational instability. The findings mark the first detection of clumps around a young star that have the potential to give rise to giant planets, and future research aims to uncover further evidence of disk fragmentation and gravitational instability in planet formation.