Astronomers Zoom in on Solar Systems in the Making

href="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/protoplanetary-disk-web.preview.jpg">src="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/protoplanetary-disk-web.preview-580x386.jpg" alt="" title="Like a raindrop forming in a cloud, a star forms in a diffuse gas cloud in deep space. As the star grows, its gravitational pull draws in dust and gas from the surrounding molecular cloud to form a swirling disk called a "protoplanetary disk." This disk eventually further consolidates to form planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech" width="580" height="386" class="size-medium wp-image-66273" />

For the first time, astronomers have observed in unprecedented detail the processes giving rise to href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/stars/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">stars and href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/planet/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">planets in nascent href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">solar systems. Using both Keck href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/telescopes/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">telescopes on href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/earth/mauna-kea/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">Mauna Kea in Hawaii outfitted with a specifically engineered instrument named ASTRA (ASTrometric and phase-Referenced href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/astronomy/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">Astronomy), Joshua Eisner from the University of Arizona and his colleagues were able to peer deeply into href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/protoplanets/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">protoplanetary disks ? swirling clouds of gas and dust that feed the growing href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/stars/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">star in its center and eventually coalesce into planets and href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/asteroids/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">asteroids to form a href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">solar system. What they saw is providing insight into the way hydrogen gas from the href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/protoplanets/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">protoplanetary disk is incorporated into the star./> (...)
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