Astronomers agree that planets are born in protoplanetary disks – rings of dust and gas that surround young, newborn stars. While hundreds of these disks have been spotted throughout the universe, observations of actual planetary birth and formation have proved difficult within these environments.

Now, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have developed a new way to detect these elusive newborn planets — and with it, “smoking gun” evidence of a small Neptune or Saturn-like planet lurking in a disk. The results are described today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“Directly detecting young planets is very challenging and has so far only been successful in one or two cases,” says Feng ...

Older people who were infected with COVID-19 show a substantially higher risk — as much as 50% to 80% higher than a control group — of developing Alzheimer’s disease within a year, according to a study of more than 6 million patients 65 and older.

In a study published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers report that people 65 and older who contracted COVID-19 were more prone to developing Alzheimer’s disease in the year following their COVID diagnosis. And the highest risk was observed in women at least 85 years old.

The findings showed that the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease in older people nearly doubled (0.35% to 0.68%) over a one-year period following infection with COVID...

Lasers have become a major part of our day-to-day lives. From phones and tablets to self-driving cars and data communication—even the information you’re reading right now is likely being delivered to you via lasers.

The technology’s applications are so broad even the researchers who deal with lasers daily are continuously amazed.

Among them is University of Queensland Research Fellow Dr. Martin Plöschner from the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE).

“I’ve been working with lasers for the past 15 years and yet I’m often surprised to find them in the most unexpected places,” Dr. Plöschner said.

“In many of their applications, lasers operate in part of the spectrum which is...

Strange diamonds from an ancient dwarf planet in our solar system may have formed shortly after the dwarf planet collided with a large asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago, according to scientists.

The research team says they have confirmed the existence of lonsdaleite, a rare hexagonal form of diamond, in ureilite meteorites from the mantle of the dwarf planet.

Lonsdaleite is named after the famous British pioneering female crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, who was the first woman elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society.

The team—with scientists from Monash University, RM...