News by Subject Space & Planetary

Astronomers have captured one of the most detailed views of a young star taken to date, and revealed an unexpected companion in orbit around it.

In their quest to learn more about faraway planets, astronomers discovered that a medium-sized planet roughly the size of Neptune is evaporating at a rate 100 times faster than a previously discovered planet of similar size.

UNLV researchers Shangjia Zhang and Zhaohuan Zhu led a team of international astronomers in a study that used the powerful ALMA telescope to discover that in other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy (seen here) there is potentially a large population of young planets -- similar in mass to Neptune or Jupiter -- at wide-orbit that are not detectable by other current planet searching techniques.

A team of astronomers has conducted ALMA's first large-scale, high-resolution survey of protoplanetary disks, the belts of dust and gas around young stars.

A team led by Southwest Research Institute has developed a new technique for looking at historic solar data to distinguish trustworthy observations from those that should be used with care. This work is critical to understanding the sun's past and future as well as whether solar activity plays a role in climate change.

The first unbiased survey of protoplanetary disks surrounding young stars in the Taurus star-forming region turned up a higher-than-expected number of disks with features suggesting nascent planets, according to a study by an international team of astronomers involving researchers at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Harnessing nuclear fusion, which powers the sun and stars, to help meet earth's energy needs, is a step closer after researchers showed that using two types of imaging can help them assess the safety and reliability of parts used in a fusion energy device.