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    Astronomers Catch Planets in the Act of Being Born

    July 10, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artist’s impression of dust and tiny grains in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star (left) alongside an e-MERLIN map showing the tilted disc structure around the young star DG Tauri (top right) and the HL Tau disc captured by e-MERLIN is shown overlaid on an ALMA image, revealing both the compact emission from the central region of the disc and the larger scale dust rings (bottom right).
    An artist’s impression of dust and tiny grains in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star (left) alongside an e-MERLIN map showing the tilted disc structure around the young star DG Tauri (top right) and the HL Tau disc captured by e-MERLIN is shown overlaid on an ALMA image, revealing both the compact emission from the central region of the disc and the larger scale dust rings (bottom right).

    Credit
    NASA/JPL-Caltech/Hesterly, Drabek-Maunder, Greaves, Richards, et al./Greaves, Hesterly, Richards, and et al./ALMA partnership et al.
    Licence type
    Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

    Astronomers have spotted centimeter-sized “pebbles” swirling around two infant stars 450 light-years away, revealing the raw ingredients of planets already stretching to Neptune-like orbits...

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    Astronomers see Ring of Rocks Circling Very Young Star

    July 8, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Physics




    These ‘pebbles’ detected for 1st time: crucial link in building planets. Since1990s, astronomers have found both disks of gas and dust, and nearly 2000 fully formed planets, but the intermediate stages of formation are harder to detect.

    Dr Greaves and Dr Anita Richards from Manchester University used e-MERLIN array of radio telescopes centred on Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, and that stretches across England in an interferometer, mimicking resolution of a single large telescope. They observed the star DG Tauri, a youthful star just 2.5 million years old and 450 light years away in constellation of Taurus. Looking at radio wavelengths, they discovered a faint glow characteristic of rocks in orbit around the newly formed star.

    An artist's impression of the belt of ‘pebbles’ in orbit around the star DG Tauri. The inset is a close up view of a section of the belt.

    An artist’s imp...

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