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Low-Mass, Fainter Stars

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NASA

Jun 13, 2016
Image Article
This illustration shows one of the lower mass, fainter stars.
This illustration shows one of the lower mass, fainter stars. Because it is not as active in X-rays, it has retained a thicker disk that represents a more suitable environment to form planets.

This illustration shows one of the lower mass, fainter stars. Because it is not as active in X-rays, it has retained a thicker disk that represents a more suitable environment to form planets. The planet formation process would cause gaps, not shown in this illustration, to appear in the disk. The streams near the center show how matter from the disk is still falling onto the star. These illustrations are not to scale – the stars are actually miniscule in size when compared with their surrounding disks.

Image credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

Read the feature, Smaller Stars Pack Big X-ray Punch for Would-Be Planets.

View illustration of High-Mass Stars

Read More from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/chandra