An image of the young star forming region IC348 in Perseus (about 2-3 million years old) as seen by the infrared cameras onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers studying the birth of solar systems have found thirteen stars in this complex with detectable disks, none of which is as massive as the early Solar system’s disk. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Muzerolle (STScI), E. Furlan (NOAO and Caltech), K. Flaherty (Univ. of Arizona/Steward Observatory), Z. Balog (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), and R. Gutermuth (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-minimum-mass-proto-solar-disk.html#jCp
Astronomers estimate that at the time Solar system formed, its proto-planetary disk contained the equivalent of about 20 Jupiter-masses of gas and dust...
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