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Do The Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks Really Indicate Newly Forming Planets?

Modern instruments like ALMA have revealed newly forming stars surrounded by accretion disks. These images are so sensitive you can even see the gaps in the disk where new planets form, right? Maybe not. According to a new paper, systems with many newly forming planets are inherently unstable, so they can't all indicate new worlds. Some gaps and rings around the stars might just indicate collections of pebbles that can never accrete into actual planets. The challenge will be to figure out which is which.

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