Astronomers reveal a new phenomenon dubbed the 'rocking shadow' effect that describes how discs in forming planetary systems are oriented, and how they move around their host star. The effect also ...

Simulation of a planet embedded in a protoplanetary disc, causing disc material to pile up in a ring exterior to its orbit – Credit: Amena Faruqi / University of Warwick ...

Astronomers from the University of Warwick reveal a new phenomenon dubbed the “rocking shadow” effect that describes how discs in forming planetary systems are oriented, and how they move around their ...

Still from a simulation of a forming planetary disk. The images show the rotating inner disk along the top half, and the shadow it casts on the outer disk in the lower half. CREDIT Rebecca Nealon / ...

Every second, more than 3,000 stars are born in the visible universe. Many are surrounded by what astronomers call a protoplanetary disk—a swirling "pancake" of hot gas and dust from which planets ...

Astronomers from the University of Warwick reveal a new phenomenon dubbed the "rocking shadow" effect that describes how disks in forming planetary systems are oriented, and how they move around their ...

Still from a simulation of a forming planetary disk. The images show the rotating inner disk along the top half, and the shadow it casts on the outer disk in the lower half. CREDIT Rebecca Nealon / ...

Stars and their planets form when large molecular clouds collapse in on themselves. Gravity pulls the dust and gas into a violent spiral, which flattens out into a structure known as a protoplanetary ...

Many newly formed stars are surrounded by what are called protoplanetary disks, swirling masses of warm dust and gas that can constitute the core of a developing solar system. Proof of the existence ...