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Hubble Reinforces Planet Formation Theory

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the music-of-the-spheres dept.

eldavojohn writes "Physorg is running an interesting article on the most recent of Hubble's accomplishments. It has provided us evidence supporting that which Emmanuel Kant proposed over 200 years ago — that planets do indeed form from disks of gas and dust that surround stars. The trick, apparently, was observing many cases where a star's planet forms on the exact same circumstellar disk as the dust and gas. Hubble also aided the researchers in determining the weight of many extrasolar planets. Some had contended that these were not planets but rather brown dwarf stars — which is determined by measuring their weight." Update: 10/12 23:08 GMT by T : That's not the only theory Hubble's recent observation's have supported: read on below for a bit more. somegeekynick writes "Hubble has spotted a bunch of little galaxies, nicknamed Spiderweb, over 10 billion light-years away in the process of merging. This observation supports the so-called 'bottom-up' theory of galaxy formation, according to which smaller clumps of matter collided and merged with each other to form larger galaxies during early stages of the universe's evolution."

4 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    This has enormous implications for Natalie Portman naked and petrified.

  2. REPOST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hi there, welcome to 3 days ago, we hope you enjoy your stay.

  3. ma8e by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ofone single puny numbers continue Dpeoplef's faces is

  4. Re:Mass != Weight by B3ryllium · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Not to be pedantic, but I think you meant "pedantic". ;-)

    Being pendantic would mean that you were small, hard, and usually attached to a necklace. ;-)