Hubble has imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever seen.
Hubble has imaged the largest protoplanetary disk ever seen. It spans 400 billion miles, resembles a sandwich, and behaves with unexpected chaos.
Located 1,000 light-years away, this disk got its nickname because it looks like a Chivito (a famous Uruguayan sandwich) or a hamburger.
Why? We are seeing it "edge-on." The dark band in the middle is the dense dust plane (the meat) obscuring the star. The glowing lobes above and below are light scattering off dust (the buns).
Dec 25, 20251 min read
Perseverance is investigating "Megaripples"—massive dunes frozen in time by salt and ice.
Wind shapes the Red Planet. Perseverance is investigating "Megaripples"—massive dunes frozen in time by salt and ice.
Megaripples are massive sand structures up to 2 meters tall. Unlike normal dunes, they are often coated in a coarse layer of pebbles.
The Freeze: When atmospheric water interacts with dust, it creates a salty crust (duricrust). This hardens the ripple, making it nearly impossible for the wind to move it. They become "fossilized" records of ancient wind patte
Dec 25, 20251 min read
Hubble has captured the interstellar interloper as it races past Earth.
Hubble has captured the interstellar interloper as it races past Earth. Its strange chemical fingerprint—heavy on CO2 and Nickel—hints at an exotic origin.
Using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), Hubble tracked the comet from 286 million km away. The spectral data revealed surprising features.
Dec 15, 20251 min read
