Fact Sheet
Planetary Nursery?
A disk of gas and dust glows softly in this artist's concept of the star system known as HD 97048. The disk contains enough gas to make about 10 Jupiter-sized planets and enough solid particles to make 50 planets as massive as Earth. The star is very young, so the disk material is still clumping together to form larger bodies, and may one day form planets. Astronomers mapped the disk with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. The system is about 600 light-years away. [Credit: ESO]
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