protoplanetary disk

1. A rotating disk of dust and gas that surrounds the core of a developing solar system. It may eventually develop into orbiting celestial bodies such as planets and asteroids.

2. See more at planetesimal

Example Sentences

Image: Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk distorted by a shock front created by an expanding bubble.

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According to the study, the giant planet created rings and wide gaps in the protoplanetary disk, helping to solve a long-standing mystery: why many primitive meteorites formed several million years after the very first solid materials.

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This so-called protoplanetary disk looks like a butterfly in the images, according to Monsch.

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There, the researchers potentially found a planet candidate in the act of forming in a protoplanetary disk -- but it wasn't the planet they expected to find.

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This first result focuses on the protoplanetary disk termed XUE 1, which is located in the star cluster Pismis 24.

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