Astronomers Unveil New Insights into Planet Formation with SPAM

Astronomers at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi have made significant strides in understanding how planets form by examining the dusty regions surrounding young stars. Their latest findings focus on a star known as HD 34282, providing a closer look at the processes that lead to planetary birth. The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal on November 5, 2025.

Using the observatory’s advanced Near-Infrared Camera (NIRC2), the team was able to penetrate the thick gas and dust enveloping HD 34282, which lies approximately 400 light-years from Earth. This star is surrounded by a “transition disk,” a region believed to be shaped by the gravitational influence of forming planets.

Exploring Planetary Nurseries

Lead author Christina Vides, a graduate student at the University of California Irvine, highlighted the study’s importance in tracing the origins of planetary systems. “We all want to know where we came from and how our solar system formed,” she stated. The team’s observations revealed clumpy structures and brightness patterns in the disk, which suggest potential planet-forming activity, even though no confirmed protoplanets were directly observed.

The findings offered unprecedented constraints on the possible locations of young planets within the disk, along with estimates of the star’s mass and accretion rate. These data are vital for understanding how surrounding materials might coalesce into planets over time.

Rare Discoveries in Planet Formation

Detecting protoplanets is a challenging endeavor. To date, only PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c, both imaged in 2020 using the same NIRC2 instrument, have been confirmed as protoplanets. Each new observation builds on this legacy, advancing scientists’ knowledge of how planetary systems develop from swirling disks of gas and dust.

“This work is pushing the boundaries of what we can see,” Vides remarked. The observatory’s advanced adaptive optics and masking capabilities enable astronomers to resolve details just a few astronomical units from the star, areas that would otherwise remain hidden.

Looking to the future, the team plans to expand their research to include other young stars with promising disks. They are also preparing for upcoming observations with next-generation instruments like SCALES, a high-contrast imager currently being developed for the observatory. This technology will allow for even more detailed investigations into protoplanets.

“Every new system we study helps us understand a little more about how planets form and evolve,” Vides explained. The ability to observe conditions conducive to the birth of new worlds, even from hundreds of light-years away, is a remarkable achievement in the field of astronomy.

For more detailed insights, refer to the study by Christina L. Vides et al, titled “NIRC2 Interferometric Imaging of the HD 34282 Transition Disk’s Small Grain Structure,” published in The Astrophysical Journal.