These are the sharpest images yet of planets being born around distant stars

这些是迄今为止观测到的围绕遥远恒星诞生的行星的最清晰图像。

Astronomers have captured the sharpest, most detailed images yet of young solar systems where planets are just beginning to take shape.

天文学家们捕捉到了迄今为止最清晰、最详细的年轻太阳系图像，那里的行星正处于形成初期阶段。

Exquisite snapshots released on Monday (April 28) provide a rare glimpse into the earliest stages of planet formation in more than a dozen star systems, revealing where planets emerge, how quickly they form and what materials they're made from. Scientists say the data could help refine computer models of planetary formation and evolution, as well as shed new light on how these infant systems compare to the myriad of mature exoplanets already discovered.

周一（4月28日）发布的精美快照提供了十几个恒星系统中行星形成的最早阶段的罕见一瞥，揭示了行星在哪里形成、形成的速度有多快以及它们由哪些物质构成。科学家表示，这些数据可以帮助完善行星形成和演化的计算机模型，同时也能为这些初生系统与已经发现的众多成熟系外行星之间的比较提供新的见解。

The high-resolution, science-packed images come thanks to advanced imaging techniques courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. These techniques reduce distortions and sharpen clarity, boosting astronomers' ability to map out the planet formation process with greater precision by revealing finer structures within the protoplanetary disks — the swirling gas and dust surrounding young stars, according to a statement.

这些高分辨率、充满科学信息的图像得益于位于智利的阿塔卡马大型毫米波/亚毫米波阵列（ALMA）的先进成像技术。这些技术减少了失真并提高了清晰度，增强了天文学家更精确地绘制行星形成过程的能力，通过揭示原行星盘内更精细的结构（年轻恒星周围旋转的气体和尘埃），提高了天文学家更精确地绘制行星形成过程的能力。

The newly developed techniques "are like switching from reading glasses to high-powered binoculars," Richard Teague of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who serves as the principal investigator of the project, said in the statement. "They reveal a whole new level of detail in these planet-forming systems."

该项目的首席研究员、麻省理工学院的理查德·蒂格在声明中说，新开发的技术“就像从老花镜换成高倍双筒望远镜”。“它们揭示了这些行星形成系统中全新的细节层次。”

Using ALMA, Teague's team captured images of 15 young star systems sprinkled in space between a few hundred to 1,000 light-years from Earth. Rather than rely on direct detection of a young planet's faint light, Teague's team looked for the subtle clues these infant worlds imprint on their surroundings — such as gaps and rings in dusty disks, swirling gas motions caused by a planet's gravity, and other physical disturbances that hint at a planet's presence. To uncover these signatures, the researchers used ALMA to map the motion of gas within over a dozen protoplanetary disks.

利用ALMA，蒂格的团队捕捉了散布在距离地球几百到1000光年之间的15个年轻恒星系统的图像。蒂格的团队没有直接探测年轻行星微弱的光线，而是寻找这些初生世界在其周围环境留下的微妙线索——例如尘埃盘中的间隙和环、由行星引力引起的旋转气体运动，以及其他暗示行星存在的物理扰动。为了揭示这些特征，研究人员使用ALMA绘制了十几个原行星盘中气体的运动图。

"It's like trying to spot a fish by looking for ripples in a pond, rather than trying to see the fish itself," Christophe Pinte, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Planetary sciences and Astrophysics in France, who was also a principal investigator of the project, said in the statement.

“这就像试图通过观察池塘中的波纹来发现鱼，而不是直接看到鱼本身，”法国行星科学与天体物理学研究所的天体物理学家克里斯托夫·平特（Christophe Pinte）在声明中说，他也是该项目的主要研究员之一。

Initial analysis of the images, detailed in 17 newly published papers, clearly shows that these protoplanetary disks with still-forming planets are highly dynamic, chaotic places that already harbor complex structures, the team says.

该团队表示，对17篇新发表的论文中详细描述的图像的初步分析清楚地表明，这些仍在形成行星的原行星盘是高度动态、混乱的地方，已经拥有复杂的结构。

Among the key findings are fresh insights into how large dust grains are gathered into rings — precursors to planets — and subtle signs of the disks' gravitational influence, providing astronomers with a new way to gauge the mass available for forming planets.

关键发现之一是关于大颗粒尘埃如何聚集成环——行星的前体——的新见解，以及这些盘的引力影响的微妙迹象，为天文学家提供了一种新方法来衡量形成行星可用的质量。

"We're seeing evidence of hugely perturbed and dynamic disks, highly suggestive of young planets shaping the disks they're born in," Teague said.A particularly notable aspect of the project, according to the research team, is that early-career scientists took the lead — authoring 12 of the 17 published papers, with more expected to follow later this year.

“我们看到的证据表明，这些盘片受到了极大的扰动和具有动态性，非常暗示年轻的行星正在塑造它们所在的盘片，”蒂格说。据研究团队称，该项目的一个特别值得注意的方面是，早期职业科学家担任了领导角色——在发表的17篇论文中，有12篇的第一作者是早期职业科学家，预计今年晚些时候会有更多的论文跟进。