Circumstellar dust as a research area focuses on the physical, chemical, and dynamical properties of solid particles in the immediate environments of stars, including protoplanetary disks, debris disks, and evolved-star envelopes. Studies address dust grain composition, size distributions, formation and destruction processes, and radiative transfer effects that govern spectral energy distributions and polarization signatures. The field integrates observations from infrared to submillimeter wavelengths with laboratory astrochemistry and dust analog experiments, as well as hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations. It is central to understanding planet formation, disk evolution, stellar mass loss, and the feedback of stellar systems on the interstellar medium.
Yale junior Donglin Wu leads a new study showing that some of the biggest stars in the universe shed some of the smallest dust particles. It's fitting that Wu's first major scientific journal article as lead author focuses ...
Astronomy
Feb 27, 2026
1
40
For the first time, a much younger version of the sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy by astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bubble—called an "astrosphere"—completely surrounds ...
Astronomy
Feb 23, 2026
0
98
An international team of astronomers has discovered a distant planetary system that challenges long-standing theories of how planets form. Across our galaxy, astronomers routinely observe a characteristic pattern in planetary ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 21, 2026
0
94
Just in time for Valentine's Day, space offers a heart-shaped greeting. The star Mira A, about 300 light-years from Earth, has released material into an expanding cloud of gas and dust resembling a heart. Both the amount ...
Astronomy
Feb 11, 2026
0
131
This stunning image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dramatic interplay of light and shadow in the Egg Nebula, sculpted by freshly ejected stardust. Located approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation ...
Astronomy
Feb 10, 2026
0
40
A research team has investigated quasar variability by tracking optical to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths of variability information. This multiband joint analysis provides an opportunity to probe the dust structure in the ...
Astronomy
Jan 23, 2026
0
38
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
Gas and dust flowing from stars can, under the right conditions, clash with a star's surroundings and create a shock wave. Now, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have imaged ...
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2026
11
119
Stars and planets are inextricably linked. They form together and stars shape the fate of planets. Stars create the dusty protoplanetary disks that give birth to planets of all kinds. And when a star dies, planets are either ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 6, 2026
0
28
Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That's the conclusion of a new study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, ...
Astrobiology
Dec 22, 2025
4
91
