Webb follows neon signs toward new thinking on planet formation

Scientists are following neon signs in a search for clues to one planetary system's future and the past of another—our own solar system. Following up on a peculiar reading by NASA's previous infrared flagship observatory, ...

JWST searches for planets in the Fomalhaut system

The Fomalhaut system is nearby in astronomical terms, and it's also one of the brightest stars in the night sky. That means astronomers have studied it intensely over the years. Now that we have the powerful James Webb Space ...

Citizen scientists and VR software lend new insights to NASA data

Swirling disks of gas and dust, the stuff that could one day form planets, surround young stars. Through NASA's Disk Detective program, citizen scientists—volunteers from the public—collaborate with professional scientists ...

Planetary remnants around white dwarf stars

When a star like our sun gets to be old, in another seven billion years or so, it will no longer be able to sustain burning its nuclear fuel. With only about half of its mass remaining it will shrink to a fraction of its ...

ALMA captures stirred-up planet factory

Planet-forming environments can be much more complex and chaotic than previously expected. This is evidenced by a new image of the star RU Lup, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

Young stellar system caught in act of forming close multiples

For the first time, astronomers have seen a dusty disk of material around a young star fragmenting into a multiple-star system. Scientists had suspected such a process, caused by gravitational instability, was at work, but ...

The 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 points to the impending ...

page 1 from 2