ALMA Observatory
The Youngest Planetary Disks Ever Seen
How long does planet formation take? Maybe not as long as we thought, according to new research. Observations with the…
Young Stars in the Outskirts of Galaxies Finally Have an Explanation
Star formation is well understood when it happens in the populous centers of galaxies. From our vantage point on Earth,…
The Oldest Known Spiral Galaxy Has Ripples Like the Surface of a Pond
Astronomers have detected pond-like ripples across the gaseous disk of an ancient galaxy. What caused the ripples, and what do…
ALMA Takes Next-Level Images of a Protoplanetary Disk
The ESO's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is perched high in the Chilean Andes. ALMA is made of 66 high-precision…
Sometimes Compact Galaxies Hide Their Black Holes
Quasars, short for quasi-stellar objects, are one of the most powerful and luminous classes of objects in our Universe. A…
Do The Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks Really Indicate Newly Forming Planets?
Modern instruments like ALMA have revealed newly forming stars surrounded by accretion disks. These images are so sensitive you can…
Water’s Epic Journey to Earth Began Before the Sun Formed
The origins of Earth's water is a complicated mystery that scientists have been untangling for decades. Life is impossible without…
This Star is Blasting Out a Concentrated Jet of Material at 500 km/s
MWC 349A is a star about 3,900 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It's huge, about 38 times as massive…
Baby Gas Giants Cast Shadows on Their Siblings
A team of astronomers has caught glimpses of gas giants forming around a very young star. The nascent giants are…
We’ve Now Seen Planet-Forming Disks Around Hundreds of Young Stars. What Do They Tell Us?
Is our Solar System comparable to other solar systems? What do other systems look like? We know from exoplanet studies…