Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 August 24
      [2]The picture shows planet forming star system PDS 70. A planet
      forming ring is visible as well as a planet still forming a moon.
          Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                      PDS 70: Disk, Planets, and Moons
       Image Credit: [3]VLT/[4]MUSE ([5]ESO); [6]M. Benisty [7]et al.

   Explanation: It's not the big disk that's attracting the most
   attention. Although the big planet-forming disk around the star [8]PDS
   70 is clearly imaged and itself quite interesting. It's also not the
   planet on the right, just inside the [9]big disk, that’s being talked
   about the most. Although the planet [10]PDS 70c is a newly formed and,
   interestingly, similar in size and mass to [11]Jupiter. It's the fuzzy
   patch around the [12]planet PDS 70c that's [13]causing the commotion.
   That fuzzy patch is thought to be itself a [14]dusty disk that is now
   forming into moons -- and that has never been seen before. The
   [15]featured image was taken by the [16]Atacama Large Millimeter Array
   (ALMA) of 66 [17]radio telescopes in the high [18]Atacama Desert of
   northern [19]Chile. Based on ALMA data, [20]astronomers infer that the
   moon-forming exoplanetary disk has a radius similar to our Earth's
   orbit, and may one day form three or so [21]Luna-sized moons -- not
   very different from our [22]Jupiter's [23]four.

               Tomorrow's picture: Earth, Jupiter, or Uranus?
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [35]Robert Nemiroff ([36]MTU) & [37]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([38]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [39]Specific rights apply.
              [40]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [41]ASD at [42]NASA / [43]GSFC
                           & [44]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2108/PDS70_ALMA_1237.jpg
   3. https://www.eso.org/public/usa/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/
   4. https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/develop/instruments/muse.html
   5. https://www.eso.org/public/
   6. https://sites.google.com/view/mbenisty
   7. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021arXiv210807123B/abstract
   8. https://youtu.be/Cslrr2koNvU
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap041019.html
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDS_70
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190908.html
  12. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7414/pds-70-c/
  13. https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/animals-looking-through-the-window-201.jpg
  14. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2111/
  15. https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2111b/
  16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Large_Millimeter_Array
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140526.html
  18. https://youtu.be/o5JfmFSBDgE
  19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile
  20. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021arXiv210807123B/abstract
  21. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Luna#Proper_noun
  22. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/
  23. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/the-galilean-satellites
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210823.html
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  33. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210824
  34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210825.html
  35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  37. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  38. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  40. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  41. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  42. https://www.nasa.gov/
  43. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  44. http://www.mtu.edu/