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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       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.   
      
                                  2025 August 27   
        A dark field has a series of light-colored elliptical rings in the   
       center. Between two of the rings is a yellow-colored spot. Please see   
                  the explanation for more detailed information.   
      
                   WISPIT 2b: Exoplanet Carves Gap in Birth Disk   
                          Image Credit: ESO, VLT, SPHERE;   
      Processing & Copyright: ESO, Richelle van Capelleveen (Leiden Obs.) et   
                                       al.;   
                             Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)   
      
      Explanation: That yellow spot -- what is it? It's a young planet   
      outside our Solar System. The featured image from the Very Large   
      Telescope in Chile surprisingly captures a distant scene much like our   
      own Solar System's birth, some 4.5 billion years ago. Although we can't   
      look into the past and see Earth's formation directly, telescopes let   
      us watch similar processes unfolding around distant stars. At the   
      center of this frame lies a young Sun-like star, hidden behind a   
      coronagraph that blocks its bright glare. Surrounding the star is a   
      bright, dusty protoplanetary disk -- the raw material of planets. Gaps   
      and concentric rings mark where a newborn world is gathering gas and   
      dust under its gravity, clearing the way as it orbits the star.   
      Although astronomers have imaged disk-embedded planets before, this is   
      the first-ever observation of an exoplanet actively carving a gap   
      within a disk -- the earliest direct glimpse of planetary sculpting in   
      action.   
      
                         Tomorrow's picture: misty galaxy   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
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                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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