Birthplace of Planets

When a star like our Sun is born, it is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. This so-called protoplanetary disk is the region where planets like our Earth and Jupiter form. Disk material which did not form into planets may a become debris disk. Both protoplanetary and debris disks provide crucial information for studying planet formation. Thanks to high-resolution data with adaptive optics, the Subaru Telescope has successfully revealed the birthplace of planets. Researchers have been studying the formation and evolution of planets using the shape and gap structure of disks.