A bright ring of dust circling a young star can look calm from far away. In reality, it may mark one of the messiest moments in planetary birth, where gas, pebbles, and gravity are still fighting ...

Across the Milky Way and beyond, planetary systems appear to fall into a few recurring blueprints, and recent exoplanet surveys suggest that just four layouts may dominate the universe. Drawing on ...

Simulation of a planet embedded in a protoplanetary disc, causing disc material to pile up in a ring exterior to its orbit – Credit: Amena Faruqi / University of Warwick ...

Apr 29, 2025 New discovery changes views on star and planet formation A new study is challenging the understanding of planetary disk formation around young stars. It reveals that the environment plays ...

Still from a simulation of a forming planetary disk. The images show the rotating inner disk along the top half, and the shadow it casts on the outer disk in the lower half. CREDIT Rebecca Nealon / ...

Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have captured what may be the biggest planet-forming disk ever seen around a young star; and it looks unexpectedly wild. Using NASA’s ...