A strange, sandwich-shaped object is giving astronomers a rare view of the chaotic birthplaces of planets.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Main: An illustration of a protoplanetary disk around an infant star. Inset: image of the ...

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline ...

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures visible and infrared images of protoplanetary disks, showing gas and dust structures ...

Many newly formed stars are surrounded by what are called protoplanetary disks, swirling masses of warm dust and gas that can constitute the core of a developing solar system. Proof of the existence ...

Star formation is an intricate process that transforms vast molecular clouds into newborn stars, often accompanied by the formation of circumstellar discs composed of gas and dust. These ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

What methods can astronomers use to identify exoplanets orbiting within a young exoplanetary system’s disc of dust and gas that surrounds its star, also called a protoplanetary disc? This is what a ...

Astronomers discovered Gomez’s Hamburger, a massive protoplanetary disk. Edge-on view shows dust and gas layers with clumps forming potential giant planets. This system offers rare insight into early ...

"The extraordinary results are an essential step toward understanding the initial conditions that lead to the formation of Earth-like planets." Infant planets are ravenous little blighters that ...

PASADENA, Calif.–Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding ...