Tag Archives: protoplanetary disks

In the Serpens constellation, about 1,400 light years from Earth, a fledgling star flaps its wings. OK, I’m being a little poetic there. It is more like a planet in formation gravitationally deformed from its circumstellar disk into a quadrupole shape, so that the shadow cast by the star on …

We have long known that planets like Earth are born from disks of gas, ice, and dust that surround stars as they form. But the details are important: planets like Earth form differently than Jupiter, and where On the album they are born it makes a difference in their potential …