HL Tau: ALMA Captures the Birth of a Planetary System

13 February, 2017 / Read time: 1 minute

Tony Beasley, Director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), reports the results of an observation of HL Tau, a young solar system located 450 light-years away. This observation provided the sharpest image of this system to date, and was captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) antennas.

Throughout the video, we can find an animation that takes us on a trip to the constellation of Taurus, where we find HL Tau, and then presents the image obtained by the radio telescope.

Credits: C. Brogan, B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); A. Khan (NSF); ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ) Music: Mark Mercury, Geodesium