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.
When asteroids travel too close to white dwarfs, the dense remnants of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel, powerful gravitational forces can tear them apart. However, new research from Planetary Science Institute ...
Planetary Sciences
1 hour ago
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Sixty-three light-years from Earth, in the small, faint constellation known as Pictor (which is Latin for "painter"), there lies a strange structure that has puzzled astronomers for the last two years. Nicknamed the "Cat's ...
Astronomy
8 hours ago
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Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have found a rare disk of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our solar system. Unlike in similar ...
Astronomy
Oct 27, 2026
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In the early history of our solar system, scientists theorize that a Mars-sized object called Theia smashed into the infant Earth, vaporizing massive amounts of rock and blasting it into space. Some of that material coalesced ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 1, 2026
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Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have captured one of the most detailed three-dimensional views yet of a massive binary star system while it is still being born. By tracking the motions ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2026
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A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or 0.2 light-years, long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis. These ...
Astronomy
Aug 6, 2026
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Supermassive black holes are the largest known black holes in the universe, sitting at the center of most large galaxies. They are sometimes described as cosmic monsters because they feed on surrounding gas and dust when ...
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
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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
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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
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