.gif)
ALMA has obtained its most detailed image yet showing the structure of
the disc around HL Tau, a million-year-old Sun-like star located approximately
450 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. The image exceeds
all expectations and reveals a series of concentric and bright rings, separated
by gaps.
Stars like HL Tau and our own Sun form within clouds of gas and dust that collapse under gravity. Over time, the surrounding dust particles stick together, growing into sand, pebbles, and larger-size rocks, which eventually settle into a thin disc where asteroids, comets, and planets form. Once these planetary bodies acquire enough mass, they dramatically reshape the structure of the disc, fashioning rings and gaps as the planets sweep their orbits clear of debris and shepherd dust and gas into tighter and more confined zones.
The investigation of these protoplanetary discs is essential to our understanding of how Earth formed in the Solar System. Observing the first stages of planet formation around HL Tauri may show us how our own planetary system may have looked more than four billion years ago, when it formed.
Source and further reading:
http://www.almaobservatory.org/press-room/press-releases/771-revolutionary-alma-image-reveals-planetary-genesis
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
Stars like HL Tau and our own Sun form within clouds of gas and dust that collapse under gravity. Over time, the surrounding dust particles stick together, growing into sand, pebbles, and larger-size rocks, which eventually settle into a thin disc where asteroids, comets, and planets form. Once these planetary bodies acquire enough mass, they dramatically reshape the structure of the disc, fashioning rings and gaps as the planets sweep their orbits clear of debris and shepherd dust and gas into tighter and more confined zones.
The investigation of these protoplanetary discs is essential to our understanding of how Earth formed in the Solar System. Observing the first stages of planet formation around HL Tauri may show us how our own planetary system may have looked more than four billion years ago, when it formed.
Source and further reading:
http://www.almaobservatory.org/press-room/press-releases/771-revolutionary-alma-image-reveals-planetary-genesis
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
No comments:
Post a Comment