Look SHARP! DSHARP looks forming planets in unprecedented detail

27 January, 2020 / Read time: 1 minute

This video shows the results of ALMA‘s first large-scale, high-resolution survey of protoplanetary disks (the belts of dust and gas around young stars), known as the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP).

Thanks to this, team of astronomers have cataloged nearly 4,000 exoplanets in orbit around distant stars. Though the discovery of these newfound worlds has taught us much, there is still a great deal we do not know about the birth of planets and the precise cosmic recipes that spawn the wide array of planetary bodies we have already uncovered, including so-called hot Jupiters, massive rocky worlds, icy dwarf planets, and – hopefully someday soon – distant analogs of Earth.

Credits: National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)