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.
An international team of astronomers including researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has unveiled groundbreaking findings about the disks of gas and dust surrounding nearby young stars, using ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 13, 2025
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Astrophysicists have gained precious new insights into how distant exoplanets form and what their atmospheres can look like, after using the James Webb Telescope to image two young exoplanets in extraordinary detail. Among ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 10, 2025
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Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have detected water ice in a debris disk around HD 181327—a young star located within 160 light years away from the ...
A study led by Paolo Padoan, ICREA research professor at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), is challenging the understanding of planetary disk formation around young stars.
Astronomy
Apr 25, 2025
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Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed a planetary nebula designated Messier 57 (also known as NGC 6720), dubbed the Ring Nebula. As a result, they found that the central ...
Many protoplanetary disks in which new planets are formed are much smaller than thought. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) scientists of the Leiden Observatory (the Netherlands) looked at 73 protoplanetary ...
Astronomy
Mar 26, 2025
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If there were such a thing as a photo album of the universe, it might include snapshots of pancake-like disks of gas and dust, swirling around newly formed stars across the Milky Way. Known as planet-forming disks, they are ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 4, 2025
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Tucked away in a star-forming region in the Taurus constellation, a pair of circling stars are displaying some unexpected differences in the circumstellar disks of dust and gas that surround them. A new study led by researchers ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 16, 2025
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Most stars form in collections, called clusters or associations, that include very massive stars. These giant stars send out large amounts of high-energy radiation, which can disrupt relatively fragile disks of dust and gas ...
Astronomy
Oct 28, 2024
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