Planetary Formation
Astronomy Without A Telescope – No Metal, No Planet
[/caption] A Japanese team of astronomers have reported a strong correlation between the metallicity of dusty protoplanetary disks and their…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – A Snowball’s Chance
[/caption] Wanna build celestial objects? I mean it sounds easy - you just start with a big cloud of dust…
The Origin of Exoplanets
[/caption] We truly live in an amazing time for exoplanet research. It was only 18 years ago the first planet…
Tight Binaries are ‘Death Stars’ for Planets
[/caption] Astronomers studying double star systems where the two stars are extremely close have found a pattern of destruction. While…
Astronomers Zoom in on Solar Systems in the Making
[/caption] For the first time, astronomers have observed in unprecedented detail the processes giving rise to stars and planets in…
Wild and Crazy Multi-Planetary System Surprises Astronomers
[/caption] Astronomers are finding that not only are there a wide range of different extrasolar planets, but there are different…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Nice Way To Build A Solar System
When considering how the solar system formed, there are a number of problems with the idea of planets just blobbing…
Mysterious Alien Dust Hints at Violent Planet Formation
An artist's rendition of colliding planets, the most likely explanation for the warm dust observed around HD 131488. Image credit:…
Planet Precursors May be Sized Like Trucks, Not Towns
[/caption] A typical model has planets forming from collisions of material swirling around stars. But new laboratory experiments indicate the…
History of Iron Yields New Insight Into Earth’s Deepest Reaches
[/caption] Earth may have given up its innermost secrets to a pair of California geochemists, who have used extensive computer…