As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the biggest planet-forming disk ever observed around a young star. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Kristina Monsch(CfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale(STScI))
FAST FACTS
What it is: INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS 23077 +6707, the biggest planet-forming disk ever observed
Where it is: 978 light-years away, in the constellation Cepheus
When it was shared: Dec. 23, 2026
Rich in gas and dust, a protoplanetary disk is where worlds– both rocky worlds, like Earth, and gas giants, like Jupiter– can form around young stars. Dracula’s Chivito could, in theory, consist of a large planetary system. Its name referrals both its look and its innovators, who originate from Transylvania, Romania (home of the imaginary Dracula), and Uruguay, where the nationwide meal is the chivito, a sandwich of sliced up beef, ham, mozzarella, tomatoes and olives– which looks like the layers of gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk.
In a paper released in The Astrophysical Journal, astronomers approximate that the cosmic sandwich covers almost 400 billion miles (640 billion kilometers)– more than 100 times the size of our inner planetary system, where all the recognized worlds orbit. Tilted almost edge-on as seen from Earth, the things was initially determined in 2016 and has actually now been verified as a huge planet-forming disk.
Idea to consist of a hot, enormous star or a set of stars at its center, the massive disk is remarkably disorderly, with intense wisps of product seen far above and listed below the disk.
“The level of detail we’re seeing is rare in protoplanetary disk imaging,” Kristina Monschan astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and lead author of the paper, stated in a declaration “These new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected.”
The system consists of intense, vertically extended filaments of gas on just one side, while the opposite side has a sharp edge.
“We were stunned to see how asymmetric this disk is,” co-investigator Joshua Bennett Lovelllikewise an astronomer at the CfA, stated in the declaration. “Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets — processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way.”
Get the world’s most interesting discoveries provided directly to your inbox.
For more superb area images, take a look at our Area Photo of the Week archives
Jamie Carter is a self-employed reporter and routine Live Science factor based in Cardiff, U.K. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and lectures on astronomy and the natural world. Jamie frequently composes for Space.com, TechRadar.com, Forbes Science, BBC Wildlife publication and Scientific American, and numerous others. He modifies WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.
You need to validate your show and tell name before commenting
Please logout and after that login once again, you will then be triggered to enter your screen name.
Find out more
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
