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Concentric Gas-and-Dust Disks Around Star TW Hydrae (Artist’s Concept)

An artist's concept showing an oblique view of three concentric rings of dust and gas. At the center is a glowing sphere representing the central star. The reddish-colored rings are slightly inclined to each other due to the gravitational pull of unseen planets warping the disk structure. They are therefore casting dark shadows across the outermost ring at the 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock positions.

This artist's concept is based on Hubble Space Telescope images of gas-and-dust disks around the young star TW Hydrae. Hubble Space Telescope photos show shadows sweeping across the disks encircling the system. The interpretation is these shadows are from slightly inclined inner disks that block starlight from reaching the outer disk, and therefore are casting a shadow. The disks are slightly inclined to each other due to the gravitational pull of unseen planets warping the disk structure.

  • Release Date
    May 4, 2023
  • Science Release
    Hubble Follows Shadow Play Around Planet-Forming Disk
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, AURA/STScI for ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Two side-by-side frames labeled 2016 (left) and 2021 (right). Both feature a reddish-white inner ring with a dark center and a broader, fuzzier, and fainter reddish outer ring. In the left image a shadow can be seen at the 11:00 o'clock position and is marked with a wedge-shaped dotted line labeled A. The image on the right shows two shadows at the 11:00 o'clock and 7:00 o'clock positions. They are also highlighted with wedge-shaped dotted lines labeled B and C, respectively. At lower right, a scale bar is labeled 1 arcsecond, 5 billion miles.

TW Hydrae Disk

Comparison images from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken several years apart, have uncovered two eerie shadows moving counterclockwise across a gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star TW Hydrae. The disks are tilted face-on to Earth and so give astronomers a bird's-eye view...

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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