Tag Archive for 'Protoplanet'

This colorized image, taken by the CaSSIS instrument aboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter on October 3, 2025, shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: ESA / TGO / CaSSIS.

3I/ATLAS-Like Interstellar Objects Could Kick Start Planet Formation around High-Mass Stars

Oct 10, 2025 by News Staff

The discovery of 1I/Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov and 3I/ATLAS showed that significant numbers of interstellar objects populate interstellar space. Their omnipresence...

Commander Eugene Cernan retrieves a drive tube from the Lunar Roving Vehicle during an Apollo 17 EVA. Image credit: NASA.

Lunar Samples Returned by Apollo 17 Contain Anomalous Sulfur, New Analysis Shows

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The leading hypotheses for the origin of the Moon call for a giant impact event between proto-Earth and a separate impactor called Theia. The efficiency...

An artist’s impression of the free-floating exoplanet Cha 1107-7626. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / M. Kornmesser.

Free-Floating Exoplanet Found Growing at Record Rate

Oct 2, 2025 by News Staff

Cha J11070768-7626326 (Cha 1107-7626 for short), a young, isolated exoplanet between 5 and 10 times the mass of Jupiter, has experienced a record-breaking...

This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope, is the first clear detection of a protoplanet in a disk with multiple rings. Image credit: ESO / van Capelleveen et al.

Astronomers Spot Growing Protoplanet in Disk Gap around Young Solar Analog

Aug 27, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have directly imaged a 4.9-Jupiter-mass protoplanet in a cleared gap of...

This image shows a possible substellar companion orbiting the young star V960 Mon. The candidate object was found with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), using its new Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS). The new ERIS data are shown here in orange, overlaid on older images of the dusty disk as seen with the VLT’s SPHERE instrument (yellow) and ALMA (blue). Image credit: ESO / A. Dasgupta / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Weber et al.

VLT Spots Protoplanet and Substellar Object Candidates around Young Stars

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

Using the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), two teams of astronomers have detected a...

This Webb/MIRI image shows the Saturn-mass exoplanet TWA 7b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A.M. Lagrange / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Detects Saturn-Mass Exoplanet Candidate around Young Star TWA 7

Jun 26, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers have used the unprecedented sensitivity of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in the thermal...

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...

This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows the RIK113 system. Image credit: ESO / Ginski et al.

Astronomers May Have Caught Still-Forming Gas Giant around RIK 113

Jun 10, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured spectacular images of an exceptionally structured planet-forming disk around the star...

This Webb image shows NGC 346, a massive star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Yellow circles overlaid on the image indicate the positions of the ten stars surveyed in the study. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Olivia C. Jones, UK ATC / Guido De Marchi, ESTEC / Margaret Meixner, USRA.

Protoplanetary Disks around Sun-Like Stars Appear to Live Longer in Early Universe

Dec 16, 2024 by News Staff

In 2003, Hubble provided evidence of a massive exoplanet around a very old star. Such stars possess only small amounts of heavier elements that are the...

An artistic interpretation of the IRAS 04125+2902 system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt & K. Miller, Caltech & IPAC.

Astronomers Discover Youngest Transiting Exoplanet

Nov 20, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet — named IRAS 04125+2902b — orbiting a 3-million-year-old, 0.7-solar-mass protostar in...

These ALMA images show rich disk structures around stars in Sigma Orionis. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / JAO / NAOJ / NRAO / Huang et al.

Planets Can Form Even in Harsh Stellar Environments, New ALMA Observations Suggest

Nov 19, 2024 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have captured high-resolution images of eight protoplanetary disks in Sigma...

Hubble acquired this image of the circumstellar disk around Vega using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / S. Wolff, University of Arizona / K. Su, University of Arizona / A. Gáspár, University of Arizona.

Hubble and Webb Take Closer Look at Planetary Debris Disk around Vega

Nov 1, 2024 by News Staff

There is no obvious evidence for one or more large exoplanets plowing through the face-on debris disk encircling Vega, one of the brightest stars in the...

In this new composite image, the Chandra data (purple) shows the diffuse X-ray emission and young stars in Cygnus OB2, and infrared data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green, blue, and cyan) reveals young stars and the cooler dust and gas throughout the region. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / Drake et al. / JPL-Caltech / Spitzer / N. Wolk.

X-Ray and UV Emissions Impact Protoplanetary Disks in Cygnus OB2, Astronomers Suggest

Oct 30, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Cygnus OB2 is the nearest massive young stellar association to our Sun. In this new composite image, the Chandra data (purple) shows the diffuse X-ray...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

TRAPPIST-1 System Was Formed in Two Steps, Study Suggests

Aug 21, 2024 by News Staff

TRAPPIST-1, an ultracool dwarf star located 38.8 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius, hosts seven planets. The period ratios of neighboring...

Planet-forming disks around young stars and their location within the gas-rich cloud of Taurus, roughly 600 light-years from Earth. In total, the scientists observed 43 stars in the Taurus region, all of which are pictured here (though planet-forming disks were only detected in 39 of these targets). Image credit: ESO / Garufi et al. / IRAS.

VLT Finds Protoplanetary Disks around 86 Young Stars

Mar 5, 2024 by News Staff

New observations of 86 planet-forming disks provide astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insights into how planets arise in different regions of...

Berné et al. observed the far-ultraviolet-irradiated protoplanetary disk d203-506 in the Orion Nebula. Image credit: Berné et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adh2861.

UV Radiation from Massive Stars Shapes Nearby Planetary Systems

Feb 29, 2024 by News Staff

For decades, astronomers have known that the powerful light emitted by massive stars can disrupt the swirling planetary disk of dust and gas around young...

This ALMA image shows the water vapor (shades of blue) in the protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri; near the center of the disk, where the young star lives, the environment is hotter and the gas brighter; the red-hued rings are previous ALMA observations showing the distribution of dust around the star. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Facchini et al.

ALMA Detects Water Vapor in Protoplanetary Disk around Young Star

Feb 29, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The water molecule is a key ingredient in the formation of planetary systems. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)...

Rings of dust surrounding HL Tauri, with line patterns showing the orientation of polarized light. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NRAO / B. Saxton / Stephens et al.

ALMA Detects Dust Grains in Gaps of HL Tauri’s Protoplanetary Disk

Nov 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured a high-resolution image of HL Tauri, a young star in the constellation...

This image from ESA’s Euclid spacecraft shows the Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, a giant star-forming region located 1,375 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA / J.-C. Cuillandre, CEA Paris-Saclay / G. Anselmi / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Euclid Captures Spectacular Image of Horsehead Nebula

Nov 9, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Euclid team has released a spectacularly panoramic and detailed image of the Horsehead nebula. This image from ESA’s Euclid spacecraft shows the...

Yuan et al. suggest that LLVPs are remnants of the ancient protoplanet Theia that violently collided with Earth billions of years ago in the same giant impact that created our Moon. Image credit: Hernán Cañellas.

Two Fragments of Protoplanet Theia Lie Deep within Earth, Geoscientists Say

Nov 1, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A giant collision between the ancient protoplanet Theia and the proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago may have formed Earth’s Moon as well as two continent-sized...

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