Carnival of Space 659

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The Carnival of Space 659 is up at Urban Astronomer.

Universe Today Are the Gaps in These Disks Caused by Planets?

Above – This is the sharpest image ever taken by ALMA — sharper than is routinely achieved in visible light with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HL Tauri. With young stars like this one, and CI Tau, the observations reveal substructures within the disc that have never been seen before and even show the possible positions of planets forming in the dark patches within the system.In this picture the features seen in the HL Tauri system are labelled. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) is a focused observation effort that included hours of data collected over several months.

This picture of the ALMA antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau, 5000 m above sea level, was taken a few days before the start of ALMA Early Science. Nineteen antennas are on the plateau. 

A new study looked at 18 young stars and their disks, and found evidence that 8 of those stars have what they call “velocity kinks” that may signal the presence of young, still-forming planets.

This study used data from the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution (DSHARP) project.

Universe Today – How were Supermassive Black Holes Already Forming and Releasing Powerful Jets Shortly After the Big Bang?

Universe Today – How Will Clouds Obscure the View of Exoplanet Surfaces?

3 thoughts on “Carnival of Space 659”

  1. ALMA has been around a few years and we’ve seen images with the band gaps.

    What is new here is the observation of “velocity kinks”, which apparently lends strength to the idea that it is young planets rather than some other effect creating the bands.

  2. the observations reveal substructures within the disc that have never been seen before

    I’ve seen similar images several years ago.

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