Planet formation is the process by which celestial bodies are formed in circumstellar disks around stars. This process typically begins with the collapse of a giant molecular cloud, leading to the formation of a star surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust, known as a protoplanetary disk. Over time, particles in the disk collide and stick together, forming clumps that gradually grow into larger bodies through a process known as accretion. The initial stages involve the formation of small, solid particles that coalesce into planetesimals, which are the building blocks of planets. These planetesimals then combine to form protoplanets, and through further collisions and accretion, they can grow into fully-fledged planets. This process can result in the creation of various types of planets, including terrestrial planets, gas giants, and ice giants, depending on their distance from the star and the composition of the protoplanetary disk. The study of planet formation is crucial for understanding the formation of our own Solar System as well as the numerous exoplanetary systems discovered in recent decades.
Astronomers have gotten very good at spotting the signs of planet formation around stars. However, to fully grasp planet formation, it’s crucial to examine cases…
Researchers from the University of Arizona have found a youthful exoplanet that may shed light on this phenomenon and offer insights into how planets form….
New simulations led by the University of Leicester offer a new explanation for star’s 85-year flare. The mystery of a stellar flare a trillion times…
Researchers wonder: Could they have delivered water to the early Earth? The formation of our solar system was a messy affair. Most of the material…
New research from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that a gap in the dusty disk circling a star could be a sort of cosmic…
Using Japan’s Suzaku X-ray satellite, a team of astronomers present the first measurements of the abundances of iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur in four directions…
Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, a newly published study reveals that when our solar system was born less than ten percent of the…
In a newly published study a team of astronomers reveals the mystery of how Jupiter and Saturn likely formed. This discovery, which changes our view…
A newly published study reveals that supernovae are capable of producing enough material to form planets. Using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an…
While testing the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array’s new high-resolution capabilities, astronomers captured the best image ever of planet formation around an infant star. This revolutionary…
A team of astronomers has discovered that filaments of star-forming gas near the Orion Nebula may be brimming with pebble-size particles. If confirmed, these particles…
A new model developed by scientists at NASA shows that eccentric rings in debris disks can form without planets. Many young stars known to host…
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered evidence that a planet is forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star in a vast protoplanetary…
Scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science are focusing on an old type of meteorite called diogenites to gain a better understanding of the earliest…
While analyzing the common accretion-disk model explaining how planets form in a debris disk around the Sun, scientists found that a newly proposed disk model…
Newly published research shows that planets smaller than Neptune are located around a wide variety of stars, including those with fewer heavy elements than the…
More than 60 moons orbit Saturn and by combining data from NASA’s Cassini mission with modeling techniques, scientists have so far been able to identify…
While using infrared spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope to analyze the dust in several young brown dwarf disks, scientists discovered that the cold outer…