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Astro Bob blog: ALMA reveals an infant solar system in remarkable detail

When this popped up on my computer I just assumed it was an artist's impression of how planets form. Wow, was I wrong! It's the real deal - the clearest picture ever of planet-forming dust rings around another star.

1280134+ALMA planet disk.jpg — This is the sharpest image ever taken by the radio dish array called ALMA in Chile, even crisper than is routinely achieved in visible light with the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows a disk of concentric rings of dust formed by new planets around the young star HL Tauri in Taurus. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

By Robert King

November 06, 2014 at 12:19 PM

When this popped up on my computer I just assumed it was an artist's impression of how planets form. Wow, was I wrong! It's the real deal - the clearest picture ever of planet-forming dust rings around another star.

By Robert King