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Starts With A Bang #128 – Planet formation and proto-protoplanets

April 11, 2026 • 5 min read • views
Starts With A Bang #128 – Planet formation and proto-protoplanets
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View our Twitter (X) feed View our Youtube channel View our Instagram feed View our Substack feed View our Spotify feed Search What are you curious about? Popular SearchesCritical thinkingPhilosophyEmotional IntelligenceFree Will Latest Videos Latest Articles Starts With A Bang #128 – Planet formation and proto-protoplanets

By looking at a giant, remarkable, edge-on protoplanetary system, astronomers have found a proto-protoplanet for the first time.

by Ethan Siegel April 11, 2026 A distorted galaxy with two bright, horizontal bands and scattered stars, seen against a dark background. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA. This JWST NIRCam image shows many never-before-revealed details in the dusty disk of the edge-on protoplanetary system known as Gomez's Hamburger, with a massive, unique exoplanet within the disk known as GoHam b.

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA JWST; Francois Menard et al.

Key Takeaways
  • Planet-formation, 35 years ago, was just a theory, as we had never discovered an exoplanet or seen a planet-forming system in action.
  • We now know of over 6000 exoplanets and hundreds of protoplanetary systems: where planets are forming and developing from disks around stars for the first time.
  • With the discovery of a large, distant, massive object within the edge-on protoplanetary disk around Gomez’s hamburger, GoHam b, we’re seeing our first proto-protoplanet. Here’s what it means.

An astrophysics column on big questions and our universe.

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    Science and TechAstrophysicsAstronomySpace ExplorationStellar Evolution

Whenever a new star forms, several processes appear to be nearly universal. A cloud of cold molecular gas contracts, fragments, and rapidly collapses in certain places. The densest, coldest clumps of gas contract first, drawing in larger and larger amounts of matter onto them. A large, massive enough clump will heat up and have a random shape: collapsing along the shortest axis first, forming a protostar at the center surrounded by a disk of material. That’s where the story of planet formation begins.

Assuming the conditions in the disk are sufficient, clumps will begin to form, and over hundreds of thousands to millions of years, the first protoplanets and then full-fledged planets will arise: a relatively rapid cosmic process, that’s usually all complete within a mere 10 million years: a blink of a cosmic eye in the history of our own 4.5 billion year old Solar System. However, by looking at the youngest stellar and planetary systems, we can uncover many details that are common to planetary systems in general, and in turn, we can learn how our own Solar System grew up.

This fantastic episode of the Starts With A Bang podcast features observational astrochemist Dr. Charles Law, and takes us inside one of the most remarkable young stellar systems ever found: the edge-on system known as Gomez’s Hamburger, complete with a first-of-its-kind exoplanet known as GoHam b. Come find out the incredible science behind planet formation, and meet our first-ever proto-protoplanet in the process!

    Science and TechAstrophysicsAstronomySpace ExplorationStellar Evolution
Ethan Siegel

Theoretical astrophysicist and science writer

Full Profile Ethan Siegel Starts with a Bang! Monthly Issue March 2026 The Roots of Resilience In this monthly issue, we look at resilience not as a buzzword or a self-help prescription, but as a property — one that shows up, or doesn’t, at every scale. 2 videos 14 articles Illustration of five humanoid figures with green bodies, root-like veins, and tree branches growing from their heads, holding hands against a yellow and red background.

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