posted on Oct, 18 2004 @ 10:53 PM
Observations with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are providing scientists with new clues about how planets are formed and challenging longstanding
theories about the environment and timeline that a planet emerges in.
www.nytimes.com
New infrared observations of the disks of dust and rock around young stars reveal that many planets apparently form in an environment more violent
and chaotic over a longer period of time than previously theorized, astronomers reported yesterday.
The observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, combined with previous data from European satellites, showed that the dust clouds in these
protoplanetary disks did not, as generally assumed, steadily fade away over a few million to a few tens of millions of years. Instead, the disks were
frequently replenished by dusty debris from repeated collisions of large rocky objects. This chaos of creation sometimes persisted for hundreds of
millions of years.
Scientists said the findings provided clues to how Earth-like planets are made and why they may be fairly common around other stars.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Well, I always like to hear news about the potential abundance of Earth-like planets in the universe. Apparently, the creation of an Earth-like
planet is long and violent.
Related News Links:
www.chron.com
seattlepi.nwsource.com
www.voanews.com
www.space.com