Protoplanetary discs

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.