Planetary Formation
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Forbidden Planets
[/caption] Binary star systems can have planets – although these are generally assumed to be circumbinary (where the orbit encircles…
Late, Big Bombardments Brought Heavy Metals to Earth
[/caption] One of the fundamental problems in planetary science is trying to determine how planetary bodies in the inner solar…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – So Why Not Exo-Oceans?
[/caption] Well, not only may up to 25% of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets - but if they are in…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – No Metal, No Planet
[/caption] A Japanese team of astronomers have reported a strong correlation between the metallicity of dusty protoplanetary disks and their…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – A Snowball’s Chance
[/caption] Wanna build celestial objects? I mean it sounds easy - you just start with a big cloud of dust…
The Origin of Exoplanets
[/caption] We truly live in an amazing time for exoplanet research. It was only 18 years ago the first planet…
Tight Binaries are ‘Death Stars’ for Planets
[/caption] Astronomers studying double star systems where the two stars are extremely close have found a pattern of destruction. While…
Astronomers Zoom in on Solar Systems in the Making
[/caption] For the first time, astronomers have observed in unprecedented detail the processes giving rise to stars and planets in…
Wild and Crazy Multi-Planetary System Surprises Astronomers
[/caption] Astronomers are finding that not only are there a wide range of different extrasolar planets, but there are different…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Nice Way To Build A Solar System
When considering how the solar system formed, there are a number of problems with the idea of planets just blobbing…