Tag Archive for 'Protoplanetary disk'

Artist’s illustration depicting the destruction of a young planet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Young Star Caught Snacking on Planetary Debris

Jul 19, 2018 by News Staff

For decades, astronomers have puzzled over the variability of young stars residing in Taurus-Auriga dark clouds, a group of molecular clouds located in...

This image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of an exoplanet caught in the very act of formation. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. Image credit: ESO / A. Müller et al.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Directly Images Newborn Exoplanet

Jul 3, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have found an infant gas giant orbiting the young dwarf star PDS 70. Not only have...

An artist’s impression of protoplanets forming around a young star. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Three Giant Protoplanets around HD 163296

Jun 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered evidence that three infant planets are forming in the protoplanetary...

Cometary-type interplanetary dust particle collected by NASA aircraft. Image credit: Hope Ishii, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Cometary-Type Interplanetary Particles Contain Presolar Dust, Researchers Find

Jun 13, 2018 by News Staff

Samples of interplanetary particles — collected from the upper atmosphere of Earth and believed to originate from comets — contain presolar...

Artist’s impression of diamond dust. Image credit: S. Dagnello.

Astronomers Find Rapidly Spinning Nanodiamonds in Dust Disks around Young Stars

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

A faint and mysterious stream of microwaves emanating from young star systems far out in the Milky Way Galaxy could be caused by nanodiamonds about 1.5-2.2 nm...

New SPHERE images are revealing the dusty disks surrounding nearby young stars in greater detail than previously achieved; they show a bizarre variety of shapes, sizes and structures, including the likely effects of planets still in the process of forming. Image credit: ESO / H. Avenhaus et al / E. Sissa et al / DARTT-S & SHINE collaborations.

ESO’s SPHERE Instrument Sees Weird and Wonderful Dusty Disks around Young Stars

Apr 11, 2018 by News Staff

A series of images from the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile shows dusty...

The vast, complex dust structure, about 150 billion miles across, envelopes the young star HR 4796A. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Schneider, Universe of Arizona.

Hubble Spots Vast, Complex Dust Structure around HR 4796A

Mar 7, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted a massive dust structure — about 150 billion miles across — around HR 4796A,...

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

Giant Exoplanet Creates Gaps in Protoplanetary Disk around Young Star AS 209

Mar 6, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Nestled in the Ophiuchus star-forming region, approximately 410 light-years from the Sun, a fascinating protoplanetary disk around the young star AS 209...

Propagation of waves through an astrophysical disk can be understood using the Schrödinger Equation. Image credit: James Tuttle Keane, California Institute of Technology.

Massive Astronomical Objects Governed by Schrödinger Equation

Mar 6, 2018 by News Staff

Surprisingly, the Schrödinger Equation — the fundamental equation of quantum mechanics — emerges while studying massive astronomical structures. Propagation...

This artist’s rendering shows a giant exoplanet causing small bodies to collide in a disk of dust. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Want to Find Giant Exoplanet? Just Look for Young Stars with Debris Disks, Say Astronomers

Oct 12, 2017 by News Staff

A new study in the Astronomical Journal finds that giant exoplanets with long-period orbits are more likely to be found around young stars that have a...

This is an artist impression of the whirlwind being lifted up from the protoplanetary disk around the 100,000-year-old protostar TMC1A. Image credit: Per Bjerkeli / David Lamm / BOID.

Protostars Shoot Out Powerful Whirlwinds

Dec 15, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimetre Array (ALMA) to observe the early stages in the formation of a new star system. For the...

ALMA image of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HD 163296 as seen in dust. New observations suggested that two planets are in orbit around the star. These planets, which are not yet fully formed, revealed themselves by the dual imprint they left in both the dust and the gas portions of the star’s protoplanetary disk. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / AUI / NSF / A. Isella / B. Saxton.

Evidence of Forming Giant Planets Discovered 400 Light-Years from Earth

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found compelling evidence that two infant planets — each about the...

Artist’s impression of the dust disk and a forming Neptune-like planet around TW Hydrae. Image credit: NAOJ.

ESO’s Exoplanet Hunter Spots Curious Features in Planet-Forming Disks around Three Young Stars

Nov 9, 2016 by News Staff

New observations with SPHERE, an advanced exoplanet-hunting instrument on the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, have revealed striking...

ALMA peered into the Ophiuchus star-forming region to study the protoplanetary disk around Elias 2-27. Image credit: L. Pérez / B. Saxton / MPIfR / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NASA / JPL Caltech / WISE Team.

ALMA Spots Spiral-Armed Protoplanetary Disk around Young Stellar Object

Oct 1, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have detected a pair of trailing symmetric spiral arms in the protoplanetary disk surrounding...

This artist’s impression shows the water snow-line around the young star V883 Orionis. Image credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ.

ALMA Spots Water Snow-Line around Young Star V883 Orionis

Jul 14, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken the first-ever image of a water snow-line within a protoplanetary...

This artist’s impression shows the closest known protoplanetary disc, around the star TW Hydrae. The organic molecule methanol has been found by ALMA in this disc. This is the first such detection of the compound in a young planet-forming disc. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Methanol Detected in Protoplanetary Disc around Young Star TW Hydrae

Jun 15, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected gas-phase methanol (methyl alcohol) in the protoplanetary disc...

This ALMA image shows the planet-forming disc around TW Hydrae. The inset image zooms in on the gap nearest to the star, which is at the same distance as the Earth is from the Sun, suggesting an infant version of an Earth-like exoplanet could be emerging from the dust and gas. The additional concentric light and dark features represent other planet-forming regions farther out in the disc. Image credit: S. Andrews, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Captures Detailed Images of Planet-Forming Disk around Sun-Like Star TW Hydrae

Apr 1, 2016 by News Staff

New images from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal finest details in the protoplanetary disk around the young, Sun-like star...

An artist impression of HD 142527 based on ALMA data. According to astronomers, HD 142527 consists of a main star a little more than twice the mass of our Sun and a smaller companion star only about a third the mass of our Sun; they are separated by approximately one billion miles. The rendition shows a distinctive arc of dust (red) embedded in the protoplanetary disk. The red arc is free of gas, suggesting the carbon monoxide has frozen out, forming a layer of frost on the dust grains in that region. Astronomers speculate this frost provides a boost to planet formation. The two dots in the center represent the two stars in the system. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Images Shed More Light on Planet Formation around Binary Stars

Feb 17, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile, an astronomer from the United States has taken a detailed look...

This image shows part of the Rho Ophiuchi region; a much enlarged close-up infrared view of the young star J1628 from the Hubble Space Telescope is shown as an insert. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Astronomers Measure Temperature of Dust Grains in Young Star’s Protoplanetary Disc

Feb 3, 2016 by News Staff

A group of European astronomers led by Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux scientist Stephane Guilloteau has measured the temperature of large...

Right: observations taken by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope show a protoplanetary disk around the young star MWC 758; the disk has two spiral arms that extend over 10 billion miles from the star. Left: a computer model reproduces the two-spiral-arm structure; the X is the location of a putative planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / M. Benisty et al / Ruobing Dong / Zhaohuan Zhu.

Spiral Arms Around Young Stars May Be Evidence of Giant Planets, Scientists Say

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

Spiral-arm-like features seen around two newborn stars, SAO 206462 and MWC 758, may be evidence for the presence of giant, unseen planets, says a team...

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