sig07-023 11.28.07 Planets Forming Around a Sun-like StarThis is an artist's rendition of the one-million-year-old star system called UX Tau A, located approximately 450 ligh... view image |
sig07-019 10.03.07 Birth of an Earth-like PlanetThis artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rock... view image |
ssc2007-14d 08.29.07 Planet-Forming Disk Around a Baby StarThis artist's concept shows a young star surrounded by a dusty protoplanetary disk. This disk contains the raw materi... view image |
ssc2007-14c 08.29.07 Steamy Solar SystemThis diagram illustrates the earliest journeys of water in a young, forming star system. view image |
ssc2007-08c 04.18.07 Evaporating Protoplanetary DiskYoung, cooler stars like our sun can form in the danger zones around scorching hot stars, called O-stars. The closer ... view image |
ssc2007-05b 03.27.07 Solar System with Snug SunsThis artist's concept depicts a faraway solar system like our own except for one big difference. Planets and asteroi... view image |
ssc2007-05a 03.27.07 Where Planets Take up ResidenceThis diagram illustrates that mature planetary systems like our own might be more common around twin, or binary, star... view image |
sig07-001 01.09.07 Forecasting Weather on Distant WorldsAn artist's concept shows a gas-giant planet orbiting very close to its parent star, creating searingly hot condition... view image |
sig07-003 01.09.07 Luminous Blue Variable HD168625: Destined To Be a Supernova?A Luminous Blue Variable star, HD168625, is surrounded by a bipolar nebula that is similar to the one around SN1987A.... view image |
sig06-022 09.18.06 Brown Dwarf CompanionThis is an artist's concept of the star HD 3651 as it is orbited by a close-in Saturn-mass planetary companion and th... view image |
ssc2006-15a 07.24.06 Stars Can't Spin Out of ControlThis artist's concept shows a dusty planet-forming disk in orbit around a whirling young star. NASA's Spitzer Space T... view image |
sig06-014 05.22.06 Stellar JetsThis artist concept illustrates jets of material shooting out from the neutron star in the interacting binary system ... view image |
ssc2006-10c 04.05.06 Extreme PlanetsThis artist's concept depicts a planetary system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992 around a pulsar. view image |
ssc2006-10b 04.05.06 Stellar Rubble May Be Planetary Building BlocksThis artist's concept depicts a type of dead star called a pulsar and the surrounding disk of rubble discovered by NA... view image |
ssc2006-10a 04.05.06 Circle of AshesThis plot tells astronomers that a pulsar, the remnant of a stellar explosion, is surrounded by a disk of its own ash... view image |
ssc2006-05a 02.08.06 Little Dust Grains in Giant Stellar DisksThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the composition of a monstrous disk of what may be plane... view image |
ssc2006-05b 02.08.06 Supersized DiskThis illustration compares the size of a gargantuan star and its surrounding dusty disk (top) to that of our solar sy... view image |
ssc2006-04b 01.11.06 Comet 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead StarThis artist's concept illustrates a comet being torn to shreds around a white dwarf called G29-38. NASA's Spitzer Spa... view image |
sig06-001 01.10.06 Circumbinary DiskThis artist concept shows a debris disk in a cataclysmic variable system which consists of a highly magnetic white dw... view image |
ssc2005-26a 12.20.05 Life's Starting Materials Found in Dusty DiskThis graph, or spectrum, from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that some of the most basic ingredient... view image |
ssc2005-26b 12.20.05 Portrait of Our Dusty PastThis artist's concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one... view image |
sig05-027 12.14.05 Belt of DustA narrow asteroid belt filled with rocks and dusty debris, orbits a star similar to our own Sun when it was approxima... view image |
sig05-026 12.14.05 The Invisible DiskAstronomers can detect the presence of disks of dust orbiting distant stars by measuring how the combined light from ... view image |
sig05-022 11.29.05 Itsy Bitsy Solar SystemThis artist's conception compares a hypothetical solar system centered around a tiny "sun" (top) to a known solar sys... view image |
ssc2005-21a 10.20.05 Planet Clumps and Crystals Around Brown DwarfsThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the spectra (middle four lines) of dusty disks around fo... view image |
ssc2005-21b 10.20.05 Sowing the Seeds of Planets?This artist's concept shows microscopic crystals in the dusty disk surrounding a brown dwarf, or "failed star." The c... view image |
sig05-012 09.12.05 Planets May Leave Tracks in DustAstronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have gathered the most detailed data yet on a gap in a protoplanetar... view image |
sig05-009 07.18.05 Disk Around Red Dwarf Stars in the Stephenson 34 SystemAstronomers were surprised to discover a 25-million-year-old protoplanetary disk around a pair of red dwarf stars 350... view image |
ssc2005-10a 04.20.05 Super-Comet or Big Asteroid BeltThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope demonstrates that the dust around a nearby star called HD 6983... view image |
ssc2005-09b 03.22.05 Blinded by the LightThis artist's concept shows what a fiery hot star and its close-knit planetary companion might look close up if viewe... view image |
ssc2005-09a 03.22.05 The Language of Planetary LightThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope shows changes in the infrared light output of two star-planet ... view image |
ssc2005-06c 02.07.05 'Mini-Me' Solar SystemThis artist's conception shows the relative size of a hypothetical brown dwarf-planetary system (below) compared to o... view image |
ssc2005-06b 02.07.05 Mini Solar System in the MakingA brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disk of planet-building dust. The brown dwarf, called OTS 44, is only 15 times... view image |
ssc2004-22a 12.09.04 A Distant Solar SystemThis artist's concept depicts a distant hypothetical solar system, similar in age to our own. Looking inward from the... view image |
ssc2004-22f 12.09.04 Model of AU Microscopii DiskThis is a so-called scatter model based on the Hubble Space Telescope image of the planetary debris encircling the st... view image |
ssc2004-22b 12.09.04 Planets Point to DustThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that stars with known planets (blue) are more likely... view image |
ssc2004-22e 12.09.04 The View from Within AU Microscopii's DiskThis is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting t... view image |
ssc2004-20d 11.09.04 Observing Young Stars: Hitting the 'Sweet Spot'What does an extremely young planetary system look like? The answer depends on your point of view. This diagram shows... view image |
ssc2004-20c 11.09.04 Spitzer Spectrum of Ices in a Protoplanetary DiscAstronomers have made the first clear detection of a variety of ices -- water, ammonium, and carbon dioxide -- in the... view image |
ssc2004-17a 10.18.04 The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems (Annotated)This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New fin... view image |
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