TW Hydrae tagged posts

Planetary disk around the star known as TW Hydrae. Credit: S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

The dusty disk surrounding star TW Hydrae exhibits circular features that may signal the formation of protoplanets. An astrophysicist argues, however, that the innermost actually points to the impending dispersal of the disk. When the maps appeared at the end of March, experts were electrified. The images revealed an orange-red disk pitted with circular gaps: a detailed portrait of a protoplanetary disk, made up of gas and dust grains, associated with a young star – the kind of structure out of which planets could be expected to form...

ALMA image of the planet-forming disk around the young, Sun-like star TW Hydrae. The inset image (upper right) zooms in on the gap nearest to the star, which is at the same distance as the Earth is from the Sun, suggesting an infant version of our home planet could be emerging from the dust and gas. The additional concentric light and dark features represent other planet-forming regions farther out in the disk. Credit: S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

New images reveal never-before-seen details in the planet-forming disk around a nearby Sun-like star, including a tantalizing gap at the same distance from the star as the Earth is from the Sun. The disks of dust and gas that surround young stars are the formation sites of planets...