protoplanetary disks
A Planet has Whipped Up Spiral Arms Around a Young Star
Astronomers have observed dozens of newly forming stars surrounded by protoplanetary disks. Some look like grooved vinyl records, while others…
TESS Shows That Even Small Stars Can Host Giant Planets
Can low-mass stars play host to giant, Jupiter-sized planets? Theories of planet formation suggest that it's highly unlikely. But a…
Machine Learning is a Powerful Tool When Searching for Exoplanets
A new machine learning technique will help astronomers detect young exoplanets in disks surrounding other stars.
Astronomers Spot Three Interacting Systems with Twin Discs
Using the SPHERE instrument on the ESO's Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomers observed how interaction between disks affects…
We’ve Now Seen Planet-Forming Disks Around Hundreds of Young Stars. What Do They Tell Us?
Is our Solar System comparable to other solar systems? What do other systems look like? We know from exoplanet studies…
A Second Generation of Planets can Form Around a Dying Star
When young stars coalesce out of a cloud of molecular hydrogen, a disk of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk…
Astronomers See Carbon-Rich Nebulae Where Planets are Forming
Understanding the birth of a planet is a challenging puzzle. We know that planets form inside clouds of gas and…
The Strange, Misshapen Orbits of Planet-Forming Disks in a Triple-Star System
Whatever we grow up with, we think of as normal. Our single solitary yellow star seems normal to us, with…
More Pictures of Planet-Forming Disks Around Young Stars
Astronomy is advancing to the point where we can see planets forming around young stars. This was an unthinkable development…
Habitability of Planets Will Depend on Their Interiors
A lot of the headlines and discussion around the habitability of exoplanets is focused on their proximity to their star…