Astronomers reveal 'best image ever' of planet formation
The ALMA telescope in Chile has provided what astronomers are calling its "best image ever."
The photo shows the birth of a planet in stunning detail, offering new insight into what our own solar system may have looked like billions of years ago. The ALMA telescope sees radio wavelengths, and this image is sharper than anything NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured.
(ALMA Observatory, via Facebook.com/ESO Astronomy)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
ALMA's image shows a planet-forming disc of dust and gas surrounding a young star, known as HL Tau. The star is roughly 450 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Taurus. Catherine Vlahakis, ALMA's deputy program scientist, said in a statement that the photo "will revolutionize theories of planet formation."
The disc surrounding HL Tau is "much more developed" than astronomers expected for the star's age, implying that "the planet-formation process may be faster than previously thought," the ESO noted. Studying the disc may give scientists a better understanding of how Earth formed.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
-
A Man on the Inside: Netflix comedy leaves you with a 'warm fuzzy feeling'
The Week Recommends Charming series has a 'tenderness' that will 'sneak up' on you
By The Week UK Published
-
Bread & Roses: an 'extraordinarily courageous' documentary
The Week Recommends Sahra Mani's 'powerful' film examines the lives of three Afghan women under the Taliban
By The Week UK Published
-
V13: a 'marvelous and terrifying' account of the Bataclan terror trials
The Week Recommends Emmanuel Carrère's work is 'absolutely gripping'
By The Week UK Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published