In the quest to understand how and where life might arise in the galaxy, astronomers search for its building blocks. Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) are some of those blocks, and they include things like formaldehyde and ...
Astronomy
Dec 14, 2023
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40
One of the primary goals of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to study the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Young stars are often surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, out of which planets ...
Astronomy
Nov 16, 2023
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77
Scientists are following neon signs in a search for clues to one planetary system's future and the past of another—our own solar system. Following up on a peculiar reading by NASA's previous infrared flagship observatory, ...
Astronomy
Nov 15, 2023
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29
Scientists using James Webb Space Telescope just made a breakthrough discovery in revealing how planets are made. By observing water vapor in protoplanetary disks, Webb confirmed a physical process involving the drifting ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 8, 2023
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115
Star-forming nebulae are busy places. Unfortunately, clouds of gas and dust usually hide the action. To cut through the dust in one such region, a team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). They peered ...
Astronomy
Oct 26, 2023
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10
Debris disks are quite common in the universe. Young stars have protoplanetary disks from which planets form. Black holes have accretion disks that are the source of the galactic jets. Supernova remnants can form a disk around ...
Astronomy
Oct 23, 2023
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9
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, dropping off its sample of dust and pebbles gathered from the surface of near-Earth asteroid Bennu.
Astronomy
Oct 12, 2023
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43
Solving the mystery of how planets like Earth were formed is an important question for understanding the origin of life. Planets are thought to form when interstellar dust and gas collect in a protoplanetary disk surrounding ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2023
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1389
Uncovering the organic (carbon-based) chemistry in interstellar space is central to understanding the chemistry of the universe in addition to the origin of life on Earth and the possibilities for life elsewhere.
Astronomy
Sep 14, 2023
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14
Roughly 5 billion years ago Earth was in the process of forming. Gas and dust gathered with the young sun's protoplanetary disk, likely nudged a bit by the resonant gravitational pull of Jupiter and other large worlds. One ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 13, 2023
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