Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline ...

Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planets, but few discoveries have stretched scientific expectations like IRAS ...

New data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows where crystalline silicates form around young stars and how disk outflows transport them to colder, outer regions.

A strange, sandwich-shaped object is giving astronomers a rare view of the chaotic birthplaces of planets.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures visible and infrared images of protoplanetary disks, showing gas and dust structures ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Main: An illustration of a protoplanetary disk around an infant star. Inset: image of the ...

Leonardo Testi and team investigate the initial conditions for planet formation in this special astronomy focus ...

Star formation is an intricate process that transforms vast molecular clouds into newborn stars, often accompanied by the formation of circumstellar discs composed of gas and dust. These ...

What methods can astronomers use to identify exoplanets orbiting within a young exoplanetary system’s disc of dust and gas that surrounds its star, also called a protoplanetary disc? This is what a ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Many newly formed stars are surrounded by what are called protoplanetary disks, swirling masses of warm dust and gas that can constitute the core of a developing solar system. Proof of the existence ...

PASADENA, Calif.–Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding ...