Category Archives: the astronomer’s universe

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Mommy, Where Do Planets Come From?

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Taking a Closer Look

Over at Astrocast.tv I’ve been sharing some of the latest astronomy research in a four-minute-long (or so) segment called The Astronomer’s Universe. This month’s topic is planetary system formation and I give you a taste of what astronomers are looking at and what they’re learning as they observe the evidence of planetary formation.

I think people are quite fascinated with the topic for a number of reasons, but one that comes up over and over again is that it gives us insight into how our own Sun and planets formed.  By observing and delving deep into the regions where stars and planets are formed (using multiwavelength instruments — optical, infrared, ultraviolet, and even radio and x-ray) astronomers are starting to get a really good sense of the chemical and physical interactions that take place as clouds of gas and dust coalesce over millions and billions of years. We’ve known the general picture for a long time — that the coalescence results in rocky planets close to stars and gas/ice giants and frozen worlds and moons far away from the stars. And, we’ve known for quite a while that the raw materials for these formation scenarios come from stars that have died and expelled their masses to space.  But, the minute details of how chemicals combine with other ones, how particles stick together, how they stay together through the stormy youth and adolescence of their parent stars and their complex gravitational and magnetic environments, and a thousand other details — that’s all relatively recent research.  Those details mean a lot when it comes to understanding how our own solar system formed. And, how life arose within it (at least on Earth).

I invite you to watch here and then head over to Astrocast.tv (link above) for other enjoyable and fascinating segments about amateur astronomy, our green planet, and a look at space science news  by my fellow ‘Cast members Tavi Greiner, Bente Lilje Bye, and our host and old friend of mine, NASA Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern. Special thanks to Rich Mathews, our executive producer, for all the hard work corraling us special correspondents and putting all the segments together!

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Star Birth and other Goodies

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and the Astronomer’s Universe

A few months ago I started creating special episodes for a segment called The Astronomer’s Universe, which is webcast on Astrocast.tv — a video cast that covers an amazing amount of info about astronomy and space science topics. This month (July), I covered star birth in a short segment titled (aptly enough) Starbirth, which you can watch below.

The process of star formation fascinates me. And, it is keeping a lot of astronomers very involved in figuring out the way the births of stars unfold. The general picture is pretty well known — that is, that a cloud of gas and dust begins to coalesce to form a star at its heart. After some time passes, a star is born, and if there’s enough material left over, planets may form.  The details of starbirth have long been hidden in the clouds of gas and dust, so when astronomers found a way to peek through the clouds (using infrared- and radio-sensitive instruments, for example), they began to see the intricate parts of the process. Now they are working to explain the process in greater detail and I think that over the next few years we’ll see a pretty complete explanation of just how it is that stars begin their lives.

That’s the story I tell (along with some nice images) over at Astrocast.tv.  And, as they say on late-nite TV, there’s more!  You can see some great segments from my producing colleagues at Astrocast.tv covering night sky gazing, the study of our own planet, and an exclusive look at the opening of Spaceport America a week or so back.  Check it all out!