ssc2008-19b 10.27.08 Young Solar System in the MakingThis artist's diagram compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system. The two systems are structured sim... view image |
ssc2008-19a 10.27.08 Epsilon Eridani: Double the RubbleThis artist's conception shows the closest known planetary system to our own, called Epsilon Eridani. Observations fr... view image |
ssc2008-06a 03.13.08 A Young Stellar Disk around AA TauriThis plot of infrared data shows the signatures of water vapor and simple organic molecules in the disk of gas and du... view image |
ssc2008-06b 03.13.08 Water Vapor in the Young Planetary Disk of AS 205NThis plot of infrared data shows the strong signature of water vapor in the disk of gas and dust surrounding a young ... view image |
sig08-002 01.09.08 Accretion Disk Around Binary Star System WZ SgeAn artist's concept of the accretion disk around the binary star system WZ Sge. Using data from Kitt Peak National Ob... view image |
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 |
ssc2007-14c 08.29.07 Steamy Solar SystemThis diagram illustrates the earliest journeys of water in a young, forming star system. 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 |
ssc2007-08c 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 |
ssc2007-05a 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 |
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 |
ssc2007-03a 02.12.07 Comets Kick Up Dust in Helix NebulaThis infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed b... view image |
sig06-023 10.03.06 A Star's Close EncounterThe potential planet-forming disk (or "protoplanetary disk") of a sun-like star is being violently ripped away by the... 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 |
ssc2006-10b 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 |
sig05-026 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 |
sig05-027 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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
ssc2005-06b 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 |
ssc2005-01a 01.10.05 Tiny Particles, So Far AwayNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently captured these images of the star Vega, located 25 light years away in the co... 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 |
ssc2004-22a 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 |
ssc2004-22b 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 |
ssc2004-22c 12.09.04 Is There Anybody Home?NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently captured these infrared images of six older stars with known planets. The yel... 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 |
ssc2004-22d 12.09.04 Debris Disks Around Sun-Like Stars AU Microscopii and HD 107146Debris disks are shown here around two stars, one a small red dwarf, the other like our sun but much younger. 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 |
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