Birth of a planet
Most planets form when a molecular cloud collapses into a young star. The leftover gas and dust form a disk around the star, and the particulates inside the disk begin to collide and coalesce over millions of years, forming larger and larger objects until a planet eventually takes shape.
Sally Dodson Robinson, astronomer, and her team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are modeling and simulating these protostellar disks. The simulations model important factors such as the turbulence and temperature of the disk, which affect how and where planets form. In a disk that is too turbulent, the particles move too fast and bounce off each other. Less turbulence means a greater chance for them to collide and stick together.
Discoveries like this are a result of the complexity of the models and simulations, which cover a timescale of millions of years. The considerable computation involved in this project was facilitated by the Ranger supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).
In 1988, we knew of one solitary extrasolar planet. In 2012, we know of almost 2,400 awaiting confirmation. Understanding the conditions that are most favorable for planet formation will aid researchers like Sally Dodson Robinson in discovering more of them, and will also provide greater understanding of the evolution of Earth and our own solar system.
A YouTube video is available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1f_grkp398
Media Contact
All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy
This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.
innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.
Newest articles
New yttrium-hydrogen compounds discovered
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have made a significant scientific breakthrough by discovering new yttrium-hydrogen compounds having serious implications for the research on high-pressure superconductivity. High-pressure superconductivity refers to…
New AI model detects ninety percent of lymphatic cancer cases
Medical image analysis using AI has developed rapidly in recent years. Now, one of the largest studies to date has been carried out using AI-assisted image analysis of lymphoma, cancer…
UTA preps giant particle detectors for neutrino project
Excavation of caverns part of Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. With excavation work complete at the site where four gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be…