Latest TW Hydrae association Stories
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may in fact be creating new worlds. The disk of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae may be massive enough to make even more planets than we have in our own solar system. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The findings were made using the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope, a mission in which NASA is a...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers recently reported in the journal Nature that they have determined the mass of the planetary nursery surrounding the star TW Hydrae with unprecedented accuracy. TW Hydrae lies roughly 176 light-years away from Earth and is one of the most frequently observed protoplanetary disks in space. The young star is surrounded with a disk of dense gas and dust, in which larger objects begin to turn into planets. Our Solar System...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Using data from the Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have detected for the first time cold water vapor enveloping a dusty disk around a young star. The findings suggest that this disk, which is poised to develop into a solar system, contains great quantities of water, suggesting that water-covered planets like Earth may be common in the universe. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions. (Logo:...
The Herschel Space Observatory has helped astronomers detect water-covered planets like Earth around a young star. The astronomers used data from Herschel to detect cold water vapor enveloping a dusty disk around the young star. This is the first time scientists have found evidence of vast quantities of water extending out into the cooler, far reaches of disks where comets take shape. The more water available in disks for icy comets to form, the greater the chances that large...
170 light-years away from earth exists a particularly puzzling orbiting object. This object, 2M1207B, seems to be physically impossible. Nothing about it matches any established astronomical theory. Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced in a press conference, "This is a strange enough object that it needs a strange explanation." During this press conference, the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, astronomers announced that 2M1207B might...
Calgary, AB -- Earth's Moon was created by an early collision with another large planetary body. It was a "chip off the old block." Mars captured its asteroidal moons as they passed by. But Jupiter made its own moons out of dust and gas remaining from its formation. Now, observations by astronomer Subhanjoy Mohanty of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and his colleagues provide the first direct evidence for a dusty disk around a distant planet that in mass would...
Cambridge, MA -- Interstellar travelers might want to detour around the star system TW Hydrae to avoid a messy planetary construction site. Astronomer David Wilner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and his colleagues have discovered that the gaseous protoplanetary disk surrounding TW Hydrae holds vast swaths of pebbles extending outward for at least 1 billion miles. These rocky chunks should continue to grow in size as they collide and stick together until they...
Astronomers Confirm the First Image of a Planet Outside of Our Solar SystemESO -- An international team of astronomers reports today confirmation of the discovery of a giant planet, approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, that is gravitationally bound to a young brown dwarf. This puts an end to a year long discussion on the nature of this object, which started with the detection of a red object close to the brown dwarf. In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images...
New Young Sub-stellar Companion Imaged with the VLT ESO -- Since the discovery in 1995 of the first planet orbiting a normal star other than the Sun, there are now more than 150 candidates of these so-called exoplanets known. Most of them are detected by indirect methods, based either on variations of the radial velocity or the dimming of the star as the planet passes in front of it (see ESO PR 06/03, ESO PR 11/04 and ESO PR 22/04). Astronomers would, however, prefer to obtain a direct image...
Hubble -- Unique follow up observations carried out with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are providing important supporting evidence for the existence of a candidate planetary companion to a relatively bright young brown dwarf star located 225 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile detected the planet candidate in April 2004 with infrared observations using adaptive optics to sharpen their view....
