Tag Archive for 'Circumplanetary disk'

Jupiter (lower left) has a strong magnetic field which creates a cavity in its circumplanetary disk; Saturn (upper right) lacks a strong magnetic field so its circumplanetary disk evolves without a cavity. Image credit: Yuri I. Fujii / L-INSIGHT / Kyoto University / Shinichiro Kinoshita.

Jupiter’s Strong Magnetic Field May Explain Why It Has So Many Large Moons

Apr 7, 2026 by News Staff

The Jovian system has four large moons, including the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, whereas the Saturnian system is dominated by one giant...

An artistic rendering of a dust and gas disk encircling the young exoplanet CT Cha b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / G. Cugno, University of Zürich & NCCR PlanetS / S. Grant, Carnegie Institution for Science / J. Olmsted, STScI / L. Hustak, STScI.

Webb Discovers Exomoon-Forming Circumplanetary Disk around Gas-Giant Exoplanet

Sep 29, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found the carbon-rich disk surrounding CT Cha b, a giant exoplanet around 620 light-years...

An artist’s rendition of the YSES-1 system consisting of the Sun-like star in the center, YSES-1b and its dusty circumplanetary disk (right), and YSES-1c with silicate clouds in its atmosphere (left). Image credit: Ellis Bogat.

Webb Observes Two Young Exoplanets in YSES-1 System

Jun 11, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected silicate clouds in the atmosphere of the exoplanet YSES-1c and a circumplanetary...

At an estimated mass of 5 Jupiter masses, NIRISS-NGC1333-5 (also known as NN5) is a good candidate to be the lowest-mass object found in NGC 1333 thus far and the lowest-mass object with a disk in any region identified to date. Image credit: Langeveld et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad6f0c.

Webb Discovers Six Free-Floating Exoplanets in NGC 1333

Aug 27, 2024 by News Staff

Using the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered...

Artist’s impression of an infant star still surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

ALMA Spots Circumplanetary Disk around Young Star AS 209

Aug 9, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the emission from 13CO — measure of the molecular gas distribution...

This ALMA image shows a close-up view on the circumplanetary disk surrounding PDS 70c. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Benisty et al.

ALMA Detects Circumplanetary Disk around Young Exoplanet PDS 70c

Jul 22, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected a circumplanetary disk — a ring-shaped area where moons and...

Researchers Find New Evidence that Mars Once Had Massive Ring

Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

Mars had a massive ring system several billion years ago, according to new research from the SETI Institute and Purdue University. An artist’s impression...

An artist’s impression of several moons forming around a young gas-giant planet. Image credit: Nagoya University.

Single-Moon Systems Possible around Gas-Giant Planets

Mar 9, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers in Japan has demonstrated that systems can form that have only one large moon, such as Titan around Saturn, around a gas giant. An...

An artist’s impression of the circumplanetary disk around PDS 70c. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Moon-Forming Disk around Young Gas Giant PDS 70c

Jul 16, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted a circumplanetary disk around a still-forming gaseous exoplanet...

An artist's conception of the young massive star HD100546 and its surrounding disk. A planet forming in the disk has cleared the disk within 13 astronomical units of the star, a distance comparable to that of Saturn from our Sun. As gas and dust flows from the circumstellar disk to the planet, this material surrounds the planet as a circumplanetary disk (inset). These rotating disks are believed to be the birthplaces of planetary moons, such as the Galilean moons that orbit Jupiter. Image credit: P. Marenfeld / NOAO / AURA / NSF.

Astronomers Spot Birth of Giant Exoplanet around HD 100546

Sep 9, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers headed by Dr Sean Brittain of Clemson University have discovered evidence of a huge extrasolar planet forming around the young star HD 100546. An...