Posted on 04/05/2006 6:01:27 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - Scientists think they have solved the mystery of how planets form around a star born in a violent supernova explosion, saying they have detected for the first time a swirling disk of debris from which planets can rise.
The discovery is surprising because the dusty disk orbiting the pulsar, or dead star, resembles the cloud of gas and dust from which Earth emerged. Scientists say the latest finding should shed light on how planetary systems form.
"It shows that planet formation is really ubiquitous in the universe. It's a very robust process and can happen in all sorts of unexpected environments," said lead researcher Deepto Chakrabarty, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Details appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Using NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, MIT scientists observed bright radiation released by a disk of rubble around a young pulsar 13,000 light years from Earth. The pulsar was once a giant star that collapsed in a supernova explosion about 100,000 years ago.
While researchers didn't directly see planets forming in the disk, they believe the building blocks are present.
In 1992, another team of scientists found planets circling a different pulsar, but they didn't observe a disk and couldn't tell how the planetary system formed.
Chakrabarty said the debris disk most likely formed from metal-rich material that failed to escape the supernova. The disk resembled that seen around sun-like stars, leading researchers to conclude it might spawn a new planetary system.
If planets did exist in the recently discovered debris disk, they wouldn't be habitable because of the violent process that gave rise to the disk, said astronomer Charles Beichman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"This is more Chernobyl than Malibu," said Beichman, who had no role in the research.
Scientists have long believed that planets like Earth were formed when dust surrounding a young star began to clump, smashing and fusing into one another.
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On the Net:
Nature journal: http://www.nature.com
Spitzer telescope: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
Copper, that's all I want. Just a few (billion) tons of copper.
LOL! Ok. :-)
Being a Christian is not a barrier to being a Scientist, merely an impediment.
copper? wo fur?
iridium, platinum, ruthenium, osmium... sure.
but copper?
Copper is often ignored when everybody is going for the Inca gold. Just as lead and zinc are ignored when going for British silver. The glitter and glory is in the noble metals, but the secret is in the base metals. The big money will be in Roman iron and Boeing aluminum, but Trojan copper will suffice, and will be found in quantity enough to pay. Besides, copper makes better spear points than platinum does.
Have you been reading some old science books? Say, 200 years old?
but iridium makes better plasma nozzles ;)
'nite, jefe
Hipparcos's original design goal was parallaxes with a standard deviation of 2 to 5 milliarcseconds, depending on brightness and position on the sky.If you want the relative error of the observed parallax (i.e. the ratio observational error / observed parallax ) to be (say) 10%, then that means (taking the 2 milliarcsecond figure for purposes of discussion) Hipparcos parallaxes are good down to 20 milliarcseconds, i.e. out to 50 parsecs (= 165 light years) distance. On the other hand, if you can live with 20% relative errors, then the parallaxes are good down to 10 milliarcseconds, i.e. 100 parsecs (= 325 light years) distance. Or if you need 1% relative errors, then they're only good down to 200 milliarcseconds, i.e. out to 5 parsecs (= 16 light years) distance. Etc etc.
source: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/traffic/sciastroresearch/sar.9707
FWIW, Hipparcos was originally intended to do parallax distance out to somewhere in the 800-1000 ly range, but it got stuck in a smaller parking orbit, thus reducing its range.
Does this mean that black holes are the Universe's Dust Busters?
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Make that two other words, then:
Bravo Sierra!!!
Right on cue (#18)... LOL!!!
Especially when alloyed with a little tin...
Hey -- you may have a real 'new age' thingy going there... '-)
No impediment at all, says this physical chemist...
You shouldn't pick your nozzles, especially in public. :P
Now that was uncalled for. *rolls eyes*
Lest you be concerned that I am anti-Christian or something, I have no problem reconciling "Big Bang" equals "Let there be Light!"
After all, Christ is both the author and finisher of our faith and the One by whom and for whom everything that was made, was made - whether spiritual or physical.
Thank you so much for the ping!
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