Magnetic fields set the stage for the birth of new stars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have, for the first time, measured the alignment of magnetic fields in gigantic clouds of gas and dust in a distant galaxy. Their results suggest that ...

Spiral arms hint at the presence of planets

A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star has spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets.

Scientists discover 10 new planets

A total of 10 new planets have been unearthed by an international team of scientists, and one of these is orbiting a star just a few tens of millions years old.

Chandra finds evidence for stellar cannibalism

Evidence that a star has recently engulfed a companion star or a giant planet has been found using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The likely existence of such a "cannibal" star provides new insight into how stars and ...

Exoplanet caught on the move (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Only 12 million years old, or less than three-thousandths of the age of the Sun, Beta Pictoris is 75% more massive than our parent star. It is located about 60 light-years away towards the constellation of ...

Colony of Young Stars Shines in New Spitzer Image

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have their eyes on a hot group of young stars, watching their every move like the paparazzi. A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the bustling star-making colony of the ...

Astronomers discover 'tilted planets'

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Exeter, UK, research has added to a growing evidence that several giant planets have orbits so tilted that their orbits can be perpendicular or even backwards relative to their parent star’s ...

Making Jupiters

IC348 is a glowing nebula of young stars, hot gas, and cold dust seen in the direction of the constellation of Perseus. It is the nearest rich cluster of young stars to earth, being only about one thousand light-years away. ...

Cool Stars Have Different Mix of Life-Forming Chemicals

(PhysOrg.com) -- Life on Earth is thought to have arisen from a hot soup of chemicals. Does this same soup exist on planets around other stars? A new study from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope hints that planets around stars ...

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