Circumstellar disks as a research area encompasses the observational, theoretical, and computational study of gas and dust structures surrounding young and evolved stars, with emphasis on their formation, dynamics, composition, and role in planet formation and mass-loss processes. This field integrates high-resolution imaging, spectroscopy, radiative transfer modeling, and magnetohydrodynamics to investigate protoplanetary and debris disks, disk accretion and winds, dust growth and migration, and disk-planet interactions. Research also addresses disk chemistry, ionization and thermal structure, and the coupling of disks to stellar magnetic fields, linking star formation, early stellar evolution, and the emergence of planetary systems.
A team of astronomers, led by University of Warwick in collaboration with researchers at MIT and McMaster, have developed a novel method to use the properties of dust rings around stars to estimate the masses of newborn planets. ...
Astronomy
May 28, 2026
0
16
Researchers have uncovered new insights into the early development of baby stars. As published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a research team from Kyushu University and Kagawa University reports that during the early ...
Astronomy
Apr 2, 2026
0
29
New UNLV-led research is helping to unravel clues to a cosmic mystery that has eluded scientists for decades. Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are binary star systems in which primary stars—incredibly dense and compact white dwarfs—accumulate ...
Astronomy
Mar 23, 2026
0
27
One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or "super-Jupiter" blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades, ...
Astronomy
Feb 11, 2026
0
99
Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these "dirty snowballs" spend most of their ...
Astronomy
Jan 21, 2026
0
70
Astronomers have, for the first time, captured a detailed snapshot of planetary systems in an era long shrouded in mystery. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter ...
Astronomy
Jan 20, 2026
2
832
A smaller white dwarf star (left) pulls material from a larger star into a swirling accretion disk in this artist's concept released Nov. 19, 2025, to illustrate the first use of NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) ...
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2026
0
54
Have you ever found something unexpected in your hamburger? Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised to discover the very earliest phases of giant planet formation between the ...
Astronomy
Jan 6, 2026
0
26
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was involved in yet another first discovery recently available in pre-print form on arXiv from Cicero Lu at the Gemini Observatory and his co-authors. This time, humanity's most advanced ...
Astronomy
Dec 23, 2025
0
47
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. For the first time in visible light, Hubble has revealed the disk is unexpectedly chaotic and ...
Astronomy
Dec 23, 2025
0
658
