Footprints of baby planets in a gas disk
A new analysis of the ALMA data for a young star HL Tauri provides yet more firm evidence of baby planets around the star. Researchers uncovered two gaps in the gas disk around HL Tauri. The locations...
View ArticleWould you trust your nuclear missiles to a floppy disk?
What can you do with a floppy disk these days? Apple retired floppy drives with its original 1998 iMac, PC manufacturer Dell followed suit in 2003 and now they are but a distant memory. But, according...
View ArticleSmaller stars pack big X-ray punch for would-be planets
Young stars much less massive than the Sun can unleash a torrent of X-ray radiation that can significantly shorten the lifetime of planet-forming disks surrounding these stars. This result comes from a...
View ArticleDwarf protoplanetary disk detected around distant young star
(Phys.org)—A dwarf transitional protoplanetary disk was found around the young star XZ Tau B, located some 460 light years away. According to a research paper published online on June 9 on arXiv.org,...
View ArticleNewborn giant planet grazes its star
For the past 20 years, exoplanets known as 'hot Jupiters' have puzzled astronomers. These giant planets orbit 100 times closer to their host stars than Jupiter does to the Sun, which increases their...
View ArticleBlack hole accretion disk observed to 'breathe'
Scientists may have found a link between the pulsations of light coming from a black hole accretion disk and the "breathing" of that disk.
View ArticleDormant black hole eats star, becomes X-ray flashlight
Roughly 90 percent of the biggest black holes in the known universe are dormant, meaning that they are not actively devouring matter and, consequently, not giving off any light or other radiation. But...
View ArticleA giant impact: Solving the mystery of how Mars' moons formed
Where did the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, come from? For a long time, their shape suggested that they were asteroids captured by Mars. However, the shape and course of their...
View ArticleSurprise: Small elliptical galaxy actually a giant disk
Astronomers have believed since the 1960s that a galaxy dubbed UGC 1382 was a relatively boring, small elliptical galaxy. Ellipticals are the most common type of galaxy and lack the spiral structure of...
View ArticleStellar outburst brings water snowline into view
A violent outburst by the young star V883 Orionis has given astronomers their first view of a water "snowline" in a protoplanetary disk - the transition point around the star where the temperature and...
View ArticleAstronomers find a brown dwarf companion to a nearby debris disk host star
(Phys.org)—Astronomers have detected a brown dwarf orbiting HR 2562 – a nearby star known to host a debris disk. The newly discovered substellar companion is the first brown dwarf-mass object found to...
View ArticleORNL licenses rare earth magnet recycling process
The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Momentum Technologies have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement for an ORNL process designed to recover rare earth magnets from used...
View ArticleHubble images three debris disks around G-type stars
A team using the Hubble Space Telescope has imaged circumstellar disk structures (CDSs) around three stars similar to the sun. The stars are all G-type solar analogs, and the disks themselves share...
View ArticleBlack hole hidden within its own exhaust
Supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun, are found at the centers of galaxies. Many of these galactic behemoths are hidden within a thick doughnut-shape ring of dust...
View ArticleMigrating exoplanets
Many known exoplanets orbit close to their host star, within one-tenth of an astronomical unit (one AU is the average distance of the Earth from the Sun). Since their orbital periods are therefore very...
View ArticleThe death of a planet nursery?
The dusty disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae exhibits circular features that may signal the formation of protoplanets. LMU astrophysicist Barbara Ercolano argues, however, that the innermost actually...
View ArticleElectro-thermal actuator and lever system keeps hard drive recording heads on...
As the density of data stored on a hard drive gets close to multiple terabytes per square centimeter, the precision of the internal components is becoming increasingly significant. A*STAR researchers...
View ArticleVideo: Zombie vortices in protoplanetary disks and their roles in star and...
The understanding of the early stages of planet formation from a disk of orbiting particles is an ongoing challenge for astrophysics and planetary science. Dr. Marcus will address the importance of...
View ArticleNew low-mass objects could help refine planetary evolution
When a star is young, it is often still surrounded by a primordial rotating disk of gas and dust, from which planets can form. Astronomers like to find such disks because they might be able to catch...
View ArticleSpiral arms: Protoplanetary disk around a young star exhibits spiral structure
Astronomers have found a distinct structure involving spiral arms in the reservoir of gas and dust disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. While spiral features have been observed on the surfaces...
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