planet formation tagged posts

Groundbreaking Survey reveals Secrets of Planet Birth around Dozens of Stars

A team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The research brings together observations of more than 80 young stars that might have planets forming around them, providing astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insights into how planets arise in different regions of our galaxy.

In a series of studies, a team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The stunning images, captured using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, represent one of the largest ever surveys of planet-forming discs...

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To Stick or to Bounce: Size determines the Stickiness of Cosmic Dust Aggregates

Micrometer-scale dust particles from protoplanetary disks, or sites around stars with particles and hydrogen and/or other gasses, aggregate to form planetesimals, or kilometer-scale building blocks of planets. Planetesimals, in turn, merge due to mutual gravity. ©JAMSTEC

Microparticle dust aggregates, which are thought to play a role in the formation of new planets, are less likely to stick together after a collision when the aggregates are larger.

Current evidence suggests that microparticles of cosmic dust collide and stick together to form larger dust aggregates that may eventually combine and develop into planets...

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ALMA digs deeper into the Mystery of Planet Formation

Images of disks around 19 protostars, including 4 binary systems observed with ALMA. For 1 binary system, disks around the primary and secondary are presented independently (2nd line rightmost and 3rd line leftmost). Disks are presented in the order of their evolutionary sequence (the one in the upper-left corner is the youngest while the one at the lower-right corner is the oldest). The two oldest disks show faint ring-gap structures. A scale bar of 20 au (roughly the distance between the Sun and Uranus) is shown for each disk image. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), N. Ohashi et al.) Original size (1.0MB)

An international research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest...

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Action of 2 Protostars appears to be making conditions right for Planet Formation

Action of two protostars appears to be making conditions right for planet formation
Left: ALMA 1.3 mm observations toward the triple class 0 system IRAS 16293–2422. The observations have a resolution of ∼35 au and were published in Sadavoy et al. (2018). Right: ALMA 1.3 and 3 mm observations of the southern binary system at a resolution of ∼13 and ∼7 au, respectively. Similar maps for source B are presented in Zamponi et al. (2021). In all panels, the positions of the protostars are marked by stars. Additional continuum peaks around the A1 and A2 protostars are labeled and marked with plus signs in the right panels. The beam is shown in the bottom left corner of each panel. Credit: The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2022). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aca53a

A team of researchers at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, working with a colleague at the U...

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