Infant planets are ravenous little blighters that quickly devour what remains of the star-circling gas and dust clouds in which they form. The gas in these protoplanetary disks disappears rapidly, ...

NASA’s Hubble captured images of IRAS 23077+6707, the largest known protoplanetary disk, revealing its structure, asymmetry, and potential for forming multiple gas giant planets.

Astronomers may have caught the first stages of planets being born around infant stars. The team discovered previously unseen rings, spirals and other substructures in the swirling, plate-like ...

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 ...

The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging,” commented Kristina Monsch from the Center for ...

Might the first moments of planet formation be more understandable than ever before? Fresh observations suggest that the creation of worlds such as our own is perhaps happening right in front of us, ...

We discuss the chemical pre-conditions for planet formation, in terms of gas and ice abundances in a protoplanetary disk, as function of time and position, and the resulting chemical composition and ...

What can the protoplanetary disk’s lifetime teach us about finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as an international ...

"Some of the senior researchers thought that it would never be possible to do this, but with some more rigorous tests for a few months, we confirmed that we have done it." When you purchase through ...

A new mosaic shows off protoplanetary systems in stunning detail. The wafting clouds of dust and gas glow in new ground-telescope images have unique appearances, and the different shapes the material ...

"The extraordinary results are an essential step toward understanding the initial conditions that lead to the formation of Earth-like planets." Infant planets are ravenous little blighters that ...