Planets can form much faster than thought, new ALMA telescope photos suggest

"The new images add more evidence to challenge the prevailing wisdom, which holds that planet-forming disks need at least two million years to produce worlds like those in our own solar system. A revamped idea of how quickly planets can form came in August 2022, when astronomers found the youngest exoplanet ever discovered, a gassy world 395 light-years from Earth and merely 1.5 million years old."

Something to chew on here :)


At the exoplanet.eu site, there are 2507 showing radii 3 or smaller earth size. 395 fall into the range 0.38 to 1.2 earth radii size. Other exoplanets will be much larger in size compared to what we see from Mercury to Mars here. The timeline for planet formation from tiny dust grains to mature planets, this article and observations challenge long timelines it seems. Quick planet formations now?