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A frequently updated and diverse selection of inspiring and beautiful animations and video clips to stream and download.
To see selections click on the Multi Media subjects in the left column - and then click on the small images there. After the one you selected appears in a larger size in the right column click on the "Play" button.
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This animation shows the evolution of a planet-forming disk around a star. Initially, the young disk is bright and thick with dust, providing raw materials for building planets. In the first 10 million years or so, gaps appear within the disk as newborn planets coalesce out of the dust, clearing out a path.
In time, this planetary "debris disk" thins out as gravitational interactions with numerous planets slowly sweep away the dust. Steady pressure from the starlight and solar winds also blows out the dust. After a few billion years, only a thin ring remains in the outermost reaches of the system, a faint echo of the once-brilliant disk.
Our own solar system has a similar debris disk Ð a ring of comets called the Kuiper Belt. Leftover dust in the inner portion of the solar system is known as "zodiacal dust."
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