News tagged with planet formation

Related topics: earth , stars , planets , solar system

Six new planets discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team, including Oxford University scientists, has discovered six diverse new planets, from 'shrunken-Saturns' to 'bloated hot Jupiters', as well a rare brown dwarf with 60 ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 14, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (30) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

The Earth and Moon formed later than previously thought

The Earth and Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus. Until now it was thought to have happened when the solar system was 30 million years old or ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 07, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (28) | comments 26 | with audio podcast

Study of first high-resolution images of Pallas confirms asteroid is actually a protoplanet

(PhysOrg.com) -- Britney E. Schmidt, a UCLA doctoral student in the department of Earth and space sciences, wasn't sure what she'd glean from images of the asteroid Pallas taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (22) | comments 7

Researchers say galaxy may swarm with 'nomad planets'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our galaxy may be awash in homeless planets, wandering through space instead of orbiting a star.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (23) | comments 31 | with audio podcast

Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 1

First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other universities have captured the first direct image of a young ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 2

Destroyer of worlds

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers, in addition to discovering extrasolar planets (about 500 of them currently have known orbital parameters), have detected excess, warm infrared dust emission around many stars.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 24, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Assumptions about exo-oceans

Some estimates indicate that 25% of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets. A new study now shows that these planets are almost certain to have oceans if they are located in the right temperature zone around ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 04, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Astronomers discover a rare stellar disk of quartz dust

A research team of Japanese astronomers led by Dr. Hideaki Fujiwara (Subaru Telescope) has discovered a main-sequence star that is surrounded by a rare disk of quartz dust. Collisions of planetesimals, building ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

A planetary system from the early Universe

A group of European astronomers has discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Subaru's sharp eye confirms signs of unseen planets in the dust ring of HR 4796 A

(PhysOrg.com) -- The SEEDS (Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope/HiCIAO) project, a five-year international collaboration launched in 2009 and led by Motohide Tamura of NAOJ ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Recipes for Renegade Planets

Recent discoveries of gas giant planets in unusual orbits challenge the generally accepted theory of planet formation. While these discoveries do not disprove the theory, they have opened our eyes to chaotic ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 08, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Rocky planets could have been born as gas giants

When NASA announced the discovery of over 1,200 new potential planets spotted by the Kepler Space Telescope, almost a quarter of them were thought to be Super-Earths. Now, new research suggests that these ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 16, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 38

Some stars capture rogue planets

(Phys.org) -- New research suggests that billions of stars in our galaxy have captured rogue planets that once roamed interstellar space. The nomad worlds, which were kicked out of the star systems in which ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Flipping hot Jupiters: Why some planets orbit the wrong way

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the last few years astronomers have observed that in some extrasolar systems the star is spinning one way and the planet, a "hot Jupiter," is orbiting the star in the opposite direction. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 11, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 23 | with audio podcast