Space and astronomy news
Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile have now completed one of the largest surveys ever to hunt for planet-forming discs. They were able to find dozens of dusty regions around young stars, directly imaging the swirling gas and dust which hints at the locations of these new worlds.
Planet-forming discs around young stars and their location within the gas-rich cloud of Taurus, roughly 600 light-years from Earth. The background image shows an infrared view of Taurus captured by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. Credit: ESO/A.Garufi et al.; IRAS an astronomer at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics , and lead author on another paper.that have been discovered, with more than another 5000 candidate planets yet to be confirmed. From these strange new worlds, we’ve found a wide variety of planetary systems, very different from our own.
In total, the team observed 43 stars in the Taurus region, and found planet-forming disks around 39 of them; 20 stars in the Chamaeleon I region, detecting discs around 13; and 23 stars in the Orion region, with planet-forming discs around 10 of them.
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