Researchers may have discovered the secret ingredient of planet growth, which causes some worlds to grow rapidly in disks of gas and dust around infant stars. The model could be of specific value in ...

Star formation is an intricate process that transforms vast molecular clouds into newborn stars, often accompanied by the formation of circumstellar discs composed of gas and dust. These ...

Still from a simulation of a forming planetary disk. The images show the rotating inner disk along the top half, and the shadow it casts on the outer disk in the lower half. CREDIT Rebecca Nealon / ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Main: An illustration of a protoplanetary disk around an infant star. Inset: image of the ...

Planets form in disks of dust and gas called protoplanetary disks that whirl around a central protostar during its final assembly. Although several dozens of such disks have been imaged, just two ...

For the last 20 years, the best models of planet formation — or how planets grow from dust in a gas disk — have contradicted the very existence of Earth. These models assumed locally constant ...

"This is profoundly different from the composition we see in disks around solar-type stars." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

A team of international astronomers led by Richard Teague, the Kerr-McGee Career Development Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), has gathered the most ...

For this new Picture of the Month feature, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disk located about 525 light-years away in ...

The Hubble Space Telescope has detected the most expansive protoplanetary disk documented to date, extending across 400 billion miles, approximately 40 times the size of the solar system.

"This is the first time a simulation has traced the process whereby fine dust grows into giant planets." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...