NASA's Hubble Reveals Largest Found Chaotic Birthplace of Planets

Summary
Vast dust and gas disk offers insight into the birth of star systems.
Nearly 300 years after Immanuel Kant proposed that our solar system’s family of planets condensed from a flattened disk of gas and dust, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed that such planetary nurseries are common across our galaxy. Now, Hubble has identified the largest known protoplanetary disk—spanning an astonishing 400 billion miles, roughly 40 times the diameter of our solar system. This immense structure, located just 1,000 light-years from Earth, exhibits a surprisingly chaotic and turbulent environment for planet formation. Hubble’s high-resolution imagery shows wisps of material extending far above and below the disk. This discovery provides a unique opportunity to study the complex processes and conditions that govern the birth of planetary systems.
Full Article
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. For the first time in visible light, Hubble has revealed the disk is unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, with wisps of material stretching much farther above and below the disk than astronomers have seen in any similar system. Strangely, more extended filaments are only visible on one side of the disk. The findings, which published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal, mark a new milestone for Hubble and shed light on how planets may form in extreme environments, ...Visit NASA Science to view the full news release including article text and associated Hubble imagery, graphics, scientific visualizations, videos, captions, text descriptions, and other information.
News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-26555. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.
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