It has been a great run for the planet Venus . Going back to late November this dazzling world has dominated our western evening sky. It is a special planet: Earth's sister, coming nearest to us, very much alike in size, and perpetually covered by thick clouds that make it an excellent reflector of light. The dazzling, silvery white planet shines brighter for us than any other planet in the night sky. During late March and April, Venus soared high into the sky.
Also in early April, Venus glided through the southern fringe of the Pleiades star cluster , and toward the end of the month telescopes and steadily held binoculars showed it to be a narrowing crescent as Venus approached the Earth. It grew longer and more concave and as the resultant illuminated area continued to grow progressively larger, its brilliance grew even greater, reaching a pinnacle near the end of the month.
Many things are taking place:
Moon will line up with planets in night sky this week - pennlive.com
The moon will cruise our night sky aligned with and in close proximity to several planets of our solar system in the coming days.
When two astronomical objects, such as the moon and a planet, appear to line up relatively near one another in the night sky that alignment is known as a conjunction. The alignment is one of perception only from the perspective of Earth.
The moon and Jupiter will be in conjunction, in the constellation Sagittarius, in the dawn sky on Tuesday, May 12. Shortly after, the moon and Saturn will be in conjunction, in the constellation Capricornus.
Astronomers Watch as Planets Are Born - Scientific American
The week I started graduate school, the first science projects were announced for the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. This groundbreaking facility uses dozens of radio antennas working in concert to create images as detailed as those made by a single telescope 16 kilometers wide. With this extreme resolution, ALMA can see deeper and farther in millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength light than any previous telescope.
What we were glimpsing was a solar system growing up. The central spot was actually the star, which we now know is flaring, sending bursts of high-energy particles out into space. The other two bright spots marked the edges of a disk of debris circling the central star, akin to the Kuiper Belt that orbits our sun. We think this band is the rubble left over after planets formed around AU Mic, a young M dwarf star about 32 light-years away.
Astronomers see first evidence of a new planet being born – Physics World
A distinctive twist in the disk of gas and dust surrounding a newly formed star likely indicates that a new planet is currently forming in the system. This discovery by researchers in France, Belgium, USA and Taiwan, led by Anthony Boccaletti at PSL University's Paris Observatory , makes them the first astronomers to witness such an event.
Recent simulations have suggested that as they develop, young planets will kick up waves of densely packed gas that contort into spirals as they orbit their host stars; with one arm falling into the star, and the other expanding outwards. These structures provide paths for disk material to accrete onto the planet, allowing it to grow. Until now, however, no evidence for these dynamics had ever been gathered through actual observations.
And here's another article:
Astronomers confirm existence of 2 giant, newborn planets | West Hawaii Today
A direct image of pds 70 protoplanets b and planet c (labeled with white arrows) with the circumstellar disk removed. the image was captured using W.M. Keck Observatory's recently upgraded adaptive optics system. (J. WANG, CALTECH/Special to West Hawaii Today)
Artist's impression of the PDS 70 system. The two planets are seen clearing a gap in the protoplanetary disk from which they were born. Note that the planets and star are not to scale and would be much smaller in size compared to their relative separations. (W.M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko/Special to West Hawaii Today)
A 'Code' in Starlight Reflected Off Distant Planets Could Reveal if They're Habitable
Working from previous climate and chemistry models, as well as observations of other stars and exoplanets, the methods the astronomers have come up with could help act as a guide to what a distant planet's climate is like.
In other words, the light or spectra that our telescopes see from Earth can effectively be turned into code for the atmospheric conditions of planets outside our Solar System.
"We looked at how different planetary surfaces in the habitable zones of distant solar systems could affect the climate on exoplanets," says planetary scientist Jack Madden from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University.
Astronomers confirm existence of two giant newborn planets in PDS 70 system
PDS 70 is the first known multiplanetary system where astronomers can witness planet formation in action. The first direct image of one of its planets , PDS 70b, was taken in 2018 followed by multiple images taken at different wavelengths of its sibling, PDS 70c, in 2019. Both Jupiter-like protoplanets were discovered by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT).
"There was some confusion when the two protoplanets were first imaged," said Jason Wang, a Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellow at Caltech and lead author of the study. "Planet embryos form from a disk of dust and gas surrounding a newborn star. This circumstellar material accretes onto the protoplanet , creating a kind of smokescreen that makes it difficult to differentiate the dusty, gaseous disk from the developing planet in an image."
Discovery Alert: A New Giant, Directly Imaged – Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar
The discovery: This object, a brown dwarf or perhaps a large planet, joins an exclusive club: those that have been directly imaged.
Key facts: Capturing pixels of light directly from planets beyond our solar system -- exoplanets -- is extremely difficult because the light from these worlds is overwhelmed by the glare from their stars. The new object joins the thin ranks of such detections. It might be a brown dwarf -- a kind of "failed star" -- that is considered neither a star nor a planet, but somewhere in between.
Happening on Twitter
Farewell Venus, hello Mercury! The innermost planet steals the spotlight this week https://t.co/wHpyO8abjJ https://t.co/MrDirliP7Z SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Thu May 21 22:16:35 +0000 2020
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