protoplanetary disks
Stellar formation rings
Protoplanetary disks are rotating clouds of gas and dust surrounding newly formed stars, from which planets eventually coalesce.
The disk flattens as it spins, and over millions of years, particles clump together to form planetesimals—the building blocks of planets, moons, and asteroids.
Our solar system emerged from such a disk roughly 4.6 billion years ago.
- young starsRecently famous performers
- hydrogen gasSimplest elemental molecule
- circumstellarSurrounding a star
- exoplanetPlanet outside our system
- stellar nurseryGas cloud birthing suns
angular momentum · gas giant · planetesimal · gravitational collapse · solar nebula · organic molecules · interstellar dust · asteroid belt · silicates · flattening · habitable zones · condensation · tidal forces · gravity · embryos · spinning · Kuiper belt · debris
- cosmic matterstars, galaxies, dark matter, cosmic dust, asteroids
- Astrochemistryinterstellar dust, cosmic dust, carbon monoxide, methanol, formaldehyde
- stellar disks
- astronomystars, moon, sun, star, telescope
planet, planets, disks, planetary, proto, disked, protoplanet, protoplanets