Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2025

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 gas and dust called an accretion disk. Material in this disk keeps ro- tating, gathering together, and eventually falling onto the star, helping it grow over time. However, this process faces a major challenge: if the material in the accretion disk spins too quickly, it becomes hard for it to fall inward. Astronomers have long believed that jets — ALMA captures the magnetized jet of HH 211 by ALMA Observatory Nicolás Lira I n the universe, stars and planets don’t form suddenly. Their forma- tion resembles a lengthy construc- tion process. Near a young star, there is often a surrounding disk of