In the last few years, astronomers have used ALMA to measure circumstellar disk masses for the first time, but found most of the mass to be missing. If these low disk masses are real, they would suggest planet formation is much faster than we think! But could it be that this missing mass is there and we just can’t see it?
High resolution observations of the Orion Nebula show a complex collision between two extreme types of gas.
Do predictions from classical disk theory work with state-of-the-art measurements?
The authors of today’s paper wanted to use the best available instruments to image HR 8799’s outer debris disk, and look for whether “planet b” appears to have cleared out the disk, in the same way Neptune did for the Kuiper Belt.
Baby planets still living in their natal disks don’t want astronomers to find and take pictures of them. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try!
ALMA may have serendipitously discovered two new members of our Solar System. Read on to discover how, and what these previously unidentified objects may be.