Astronomy Picture of the Day
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2014 November 10
The Protoplanetary Disk of HL Tauri from ALMA
Image Credit:
ALMA
(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO),
NSF
Explanation:
Why does this giant disk have gaps?
The exciting and probable answer is: planets.
A mystery is how planets massive enough to create these gaps formed so quickly, since the
HL Tauri
star system is only about one million years old.
The picture on which the
gaps were discovered was taken with the new
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
(
ALMA) of telescopes in
Chile.
ALMA imaged the protoplanetary disk, which spans about 1,500 light-minutes across, in
unprecedented detail, resolving features as small as 40 light minutes.
The low energy light used by
ALMA
was also able to peer through an intervening haze of gas and dust.
The HL Tauri system lies about 450
light years from Earth.
Studying
HL Tauri
will likely give insight into
how our own Solar System formed and evolved.
Tomorrow's picture: gas, dust, and stars
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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