Unprecedented Discovery: Planet-Forming Disk Found Beyond Our Galaxy
Astronomers have discovered the first extragalactic accretion disk, a swirling disk of material feeding a young star, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. The disk is similar to those found in the Milky Way and provides direct evidence that stars and planets form in other galaxies. The discovery was made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the researchers believe that this finding could help shed light on the early stages of planet formation.