Visualisations of Protoplanetary disks

A visualisation of a proto-planetary disk: the puffed inner rim of the disk casts a shadow giving the appearance of an inner gap. As the distance from the central star increases, the blackbody temperature of the disk decreases and it appears redder. Far enough out, there are usually true gaps in the disk carved by one or more nascent planets or large planetesimals.

( For the computer graphics geeks out there it was programmed in python using the OpenGl graphics library on a Mac).

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