Protoplanetary discs

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Below this artist's illustration are three images captured by Chandra showing evidence that a clump of material has been blasted out of a double star system at high speeds. X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/G.Pavlov et al; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Pulsar punches hole in companion star disc

Observations by Chandra are providing NASA with new insight into the power of pulsars.

Distant exoplanet defies planet formation theory

A recently discovered giant Jupiter-like planet found a huge distance from its star appears to defy most theories of planetary formation. However, the host star's young age could help researchers unravel how not only this planet formed, but others like it throughout the Galaxy.

These three planetary discs have been observed with the SPHERE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The observations were made in order to shed light on the enigmatic evolution of fledgling planetary systems. The central parts of the images appear dark because SPHERE blocks out the light from the brilliant central stars to reveal the much fainter structures surrounding them.

Young solar systems shaped by growing planets

Observations of newborn stars have revealed how young planets influence the shape of the discs from which they grow.

This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of a vast, complex dust structure, about 150 billion miles across, enveloping the young star HR 4796A. A bright, narrow inner ring of dust is already known to encircle the star and may have been corralled by the gravitational pull of an unseen giant planet. This newly discovered huge dust structure around the system may have implications for what this yet-unseen planetary system looks like around the 8-million-year-old star, which is in its formative years of planet construction. The debris field of very fine dust was likely created from collisions among developing infant planets near the star, evidenced by a bright ring of dusty debris seen 7 billion miles from the star. The pressure of starlight from the star, which is 23 times more luminous than the Sun, then expelled the dust far into space.

Dusty disc reveals young planets

A ring of dust surrounding a star is 240 billion km across and lopsided, showing it has interacted with its surroundings, and that exoplanets do not grow up in isolation.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found telltale differences between the gaps in the gas and the dust in discs around four young stars. These new observations are the clearest indications yet that planets with masses several times that of Jupiter have recently formed in these discs. This schematic diagram shows how the dust (brown) and gas (blue) is distributed around the star, and how a young planet is clearing the central gap.

Evidence for young planets in stellar discs

Astronomers may have potentially solved a longstanding question as to why gaps appear in some dusty discs that surround young stars.

This artist's concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one shown here circling the star, are thought to be the breeding grounds of planets, including rocky ones like Earth. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted some of the raw ingredients for DNA and protein in one such disk belonging to a star called IRS 46. The ingredients, gaseous precursors to DNA and protein called acetylene and hydrogen cyanide, were detected in the star's inner disk, the region where scientists believe Earth-like planets would be most likely to form.

Disc gaps could be 'cosmic illusions'

While gaps in the discs surrounding young stars are a means of discovering newly formed, unseen planets, a study has found that some gaps could be a sort of cosmic illusion. Rather than the sign of a massive planet, some apparent gaps in the discs might be a result of smaller planetary particles.

Astronomers discover young planetary system

For the first time, astronomers have managed to capture the early stages of a forming planetary system, with the discovery of a young parent star that is already hosting a planet.

ALMA detected the organic molecules in the outer edges of the system, in a region similar to our Kuiper Belt. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Organic molecules found round distant star

Clouds of cyanide could increase hope of finding life elsewhere in the Galaxy

Artist’s concept of planets forming around a young star
Credit: David A. Hardy/www.astroart.org

Spiral arms could solve planet formation problem

The presence of spiral arms surrounding a young star is being offered as a solution to a key problem in the theory of planetary formation.