Measuring the clumpiness of proto-planetary disks
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 10:00
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The process of star formation, once thought to involve just the simple coalescence of material under the influence of gravity, actually entails a complex series of stages, with the youngest stars assembling circumstellar disks of material (possibly preplanetary in nature) for example. Understanding these early stages has been difficult for astronomers, in part because because they take place in nurseries heavily obscured by dust. Nevertheless, they are critically important to an understanding of how our young solar system and its planets were born and evolved.