Planetary Formation
Astronomers see an Accretion Disk Where Planets are About to Form
Planet formation is notoriously difficult to study. Not only does the process take millions of years, making it impossible to…
Planets may Start Forming Before the Star is Even Finished
Planets form from the accumulation of countless grains of dust swirling around young stars. New computer simulations have found that…
Magnetic Fields Help Shape the Formation of New Planets
In all of scientific modeling, the models attempting to replicate planetary and solar system formation are some of the most…
Astronomers are now Finding Planetary Disks Around the Smallest, Least Massive Stars
Astronomers have been watching planetary systems form around sun-like stars for decades. And now, new observations with the ALMA telescope…
What Did The Solar System Look Like Before All The Planets Migrated?
Early planetary migration in the solar system has been long established, and there are myriad theories that have been put…
Spiral-shaped Planetary Disks Should Be More Common. Giant Planets Might Be Disrupting Their Formation
Planetary system formation is a process that involves astounding and complex forces. Humans have only just started trying to understand…
Astronomers See a Newly Forming Planetary Disk That’s Continuing to Feed On Material from its Nebula
Over the last few years, astronomers have observed distant solar systems in their early stages of growth. ALMA (Atacama Large…
The Strange, Misshapen Orbits of Planet-Forming Disks in a Triple-Star System
Whatever we grow up with, we think of as normal. Our single solitary yellow star seems normal to us, with…
Did Jupiter Push Venus Into a Runaway Greenhouse?
Venus has been garnering a lot of attention lately, though primarily in the scientific community as the last Hollywood movie…
Newly forming star has spiral arms like a tiny galaxy
Protoplanetary disks - where young stars are forming their families of planets - usually form concentric rings of gaps. But…