While the upcoming total solar eclipse is a special moment to reflect on our place in the universe, scientists have been studying the birth of the sun and the formation of our solar system for a long time.
Astronomy
Apr 8, 2024
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37
There's a population of planets that drifts through space untethered to any stars. They're called rogue planets or free-floating planets (FFPs.) Some FFPs form as loners, never having enjoyed the company of a star. But most ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 2, 2024
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76
Every time a star forms, it represents an explosion of possibilities. Not for the star itself; its fate is governed by its mass. The possibilities it signifies are in the planets that form around it. Will some be rocky? Will ...
Astronomy
Mar 27, 2024
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29
Planets form in disks of dust and gas called protoplanetary disks that whirl around a central protostar during its final assembly. Although several dozens of such disks have been imaged, just two planets have been caught ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 27, 2024
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546
FS Tau is a multi-star system made up of FS Tau A, the bright star-like object near the middle of the image, and FS Tau B (Haro 6-5B), the bright object to the far right that is partially obscured by a dark, vertical lane ...
Astronomy
Mar 25, 2024
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28
How do planetary systems such as the solar system form? To find out, CNRS scientists taking part in an international research team studied a stellar nursery, the Orion Nebula, using the James Webb Space Telescope. By observing ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 29, 2024
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120
The building blocks of new planets could form more easily than previously thought, according to calculations by a team led by a RIKEN astrophysicist.
Astronomy
Feb 27, 2024
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2216
By analyzing the images obtained with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), astronomers have serendipitously discovered a new protoplanetary disk located some 800 light years away. The finding ...
All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged from a simpler, less efficient, more delicate one. But what was that system, and why ...
Astrobiology
Jan 26, 2024
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152
Before planets form around a young star, the protosolar disk is populated with innumerable planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals combine to form planets, and the core accretion theory explains how that happens. But ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 12, 2024
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