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Planet formation around the star TW Hydrae
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Caption: This image shows the disk around the young star TW Hydrae. This star is only about 10 million years old, young enough that planets are still forming in a disk of gas and dust around it. This image was created using an array of submillimetre telescopes, each of which looks like a satellite dish. The signals from these telescopes were combined by a central processing computer to make this image. The lighter and darker patches show areas of the disk where there is more or less dust respectively. The dark rings and bright rings are evidence that the dust in the disk has been shepherded into some orbits and away from others. This is likely because there is one or more planets that are still forming hidden in the disk.
The whole image shows the disk around TW Hydrae out to a distance of about 70 astronomical units frm the central star. The two outer dark rings are separated from the central star by approximately the average distance between the Sun and Uranus and the average distance between the Sun and Pluto. The inner central hole appears to have been carved out by a planet orbiting TW Hydrae at a distance similar to the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Credit: S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Planet Formation
Categories:
Exoplanets & Astrobiology
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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The planet PDS 70b inside a protoplanetary disk
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Caption: An image of the planet PDS 70b. The young star PDS 70b has a protoplanetary disk surrounding it. Disks like these contains gas, fine sandy particles that astronomers refer to as dust and also larger bodies ranging from objects the size of pebbles to protoplanets (planets that are still forming).
This image was taken in infrared light using adaptive optics. Adaptive optics is a technique that uses flexible mirrors and computer analysis to remove the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere. This allows astronomers to search regions close to stars like PDS 70 that would otherwise be swamped by light from the star spread out by the Earth's atmosphere. In the center is a black circle. This is caused by a coronograph, a small circle that blocks out light from the parent star. This is surrounded by a bright oval, infrared light emitted from the material in the protoplanetary disk. To the right of the black circle covering the star is a bright dot. This is PDS 70b, a giant planet that is still forming .
Credit: ESO/ A. Müller, MPIA
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Planet Formation , Protoplanet , Protoplanetary Disk , Adaptive Optics
Categories:
Exoplanets & Astrobiology
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Equal Day 2026 Planets
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beta Pictoris b
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Caption: This composite of two images shows the planet beta Pictoris b and a disk of material both of which orbit the young star beta Pictoris. Both are taken in infrared light. The inner image was one of the first pictures taken of a planet around another star (an exoplanet). This image was made using a technique called adaptive optics which removes the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere that spreads out a star's light. The star's light is then concentrated tightly enough that it can be hidden behind a blocking circle (shown here in black) called a coronagraph. The ripples around this are artifacts of the imaging process. Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant planet about twelve times the mass of Jupiter, appears as a dot above and to the left of the black circle.
The outer image shows the thermal emission from the warm disk of material surrounding the young star beta Pictoris. As we are viewing this disk edge-on it appears as a line. This disk of gas and dust provided the material to form beta Pictoris b.
Credit: ESO/A.-M. Lagrange et al.
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Exoplanet , Planet Formation , Adaptive Optics
Categories:
Exoplanets & Astrobiology
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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The Prime Meridian
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Caption: The prime meridian is defined as zero degrees longitude and runs from the North Pole through Greenwich in London to the South Pole. It is represented as a bright red line on this schematic Earth map. The horizontal line corresponds to the equator, while the antimeridian itself forms the outer edges at 180 degrees to the west and east.
Credit: Wikicommons user Kmf164
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Equator , Prime Meridian
Categories:
Planet Earth
License: Public Domain Public Domain icons
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