Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planets, but few discoveries have stretched scientific expectations like IRAS ...

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures visible and infrared images of protoplanetary disks, showing gas and dust structures ...

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular new image of the largest and most unusual protoplanetary disk ever ...

The giant protoplanetary disk offers clues to how gas and dust organize themselves around a star to form planets.

"The combination of extreme disk size, strong asymmetries, winds, and potential planet formation makes it the perfect ...

Leonardo Testi and team investigate the initial conditions for planet formation in this special astronomy focus ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

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 ...

Many newly formed stars are surrounded by what are called protoplanetary disks, swirling masses of warm dust and gas that can constitute the core of a developing solar system. Proof of the existence ...

What methods can astronomers use to identify exoplanets orbiting within a young exoplanetary system’s disc of dust and gas that surrounds its star, also called a protoplanetary disc? This is what a ...

"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 ...

PASADENA, Calif.–Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding ...