The structure found around the star Vega has puzzled scientists: something unusual is occurring (photo).

Using the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, astronomers have conducted a new detailed study of one of the brightest stars in the night sky – Vega, located in the constellation Lyra. This star is approximately 25 light-years away from us and is surrounded by a disk with a diameter of about 160 billion kilometers, consisting of debris left over from the star's formation. It is within such disks that planets typically form. However, scientists found no evidence of giant planets orbiting Vega. Astronomers observed a perfect circle without any disruptions that would indicate the formation of such planets. This has greatly puzzled astronomers, as it suggests a need to revise our understanding of planetary system formation. The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal, as reported by Forbes.

It is now known that planets are born in a disk of gas and dust surrounding young stars. These protoplanetary disks are remnants of the gas cloud from which the star formed. Back in the 1980s, astronomers discovered a protoplanetary disk around Vega, which is located about 25 light-years from us. Three years ago, astronomers proposed that a Neptune-sized planet was orbiting Vega, but this new discovery changes everything.

Vega, which is 455 million years old (ten times younger than the Sun and forty times brighter), has shown through new observations to possess a perfectly smooth protoplanetary disk. This means that there are no bulges or irregularities that typically arise during planet formation. According to scientists, this disk is unique and unlike any protoplanetary disk observed around other stars.

Vega is a very important star for astronomers, as it serves as a benchmark for measuring brightness or stellar magnitude for all known stars. The stellar magnitude of Vega is zero.

However, the smoothness of Vega's disk confounds astronomers, as it suggests that the composition of its system differs from that of the Solar System. The study indicates that there are definitely no planets with masses similar to or greater than Neptune. Thus, this new discovery compels scientists to rethink their understanding of planetary system formation.

Vega lacks the distinctive features typical of planet formation, suggesting that alternative mechanisms may be at play, according to the scientists.

A star similar to Vega, Fomalhaut, which is also located 25 light-years away and is 440 million years old, has three belts of debris. According to scientists, these stars are very similar, but it is perplexing that the same physics governs planet formation in both systems. However, it is likely that there are many planets around Fomalhaut, whereas it remains unknown whether any exist around Vega at all. It still needs to be determined whether the protoplanetary disk was influenced by the star itself or by the surrounding stellar environment.