circumstellar disk tagged posts

This is a Simulation of a gravitationally unstable circumstellar disk by means of hydrodynamic calculations. Protoplanetary ’embryo’ form in the disc thanks to gravitational fragmentation. The three small pictures show the successive ‘disappearance’ of the lump by the star. Credit: Copyright Eduard Vorobyov, Universität Wien

New research shows the turbulent past of our sun. Stars are born inside a rotating cloud of interstellar gas and dust, which contracts to stellar densities thanks to its own gravity. Before finding itself on the star, however, most of the cloud lands onto a circumstellar disk forming around the star owing to conservation of angular momentum...