The astronomers observed hot minerals just beginning to solidify – the first specks of planet-forming material, the astronomers said. A gaseous disk surrounding the young star is the first stages of the assembly process to form a new planetary system, according to the paper.

Astronomers first identified these minerals using the now-three-year-old James Webb Space Telescope. To see where exactly the signals were coming from, they studied the system with the ALAMA telescope, which is operated by the European Space Agency with international partners in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

The researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to probe the chemical make-up of material around the star, and found the first-ever traces of warm silicon monoxide (SiO) in such a disk. They also noticed that the silicate minerals they detected were rich in SiO, and that the midsection of the star’s disk was ultra-hot.