New Light on Birth of a Solar System
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 June 2005, 09:00 CDT
SPECTACULAR images showing the birth of a new solar system have given scientists an insight into how our own solar system would have looked billions of years ago.
A glowing ring of dust, captured by Nasa's Hubble space telescope, is shown orbiting around the bright star, Fomalhaut, 25 light years from the sun.
The centre of the ring, which is 12 billion miles wide, is offset slightly from the star, suggesting that gravity of unseen planets is dragging it askew. Astronomers claim the relatively well-defined inner edge of the ring also suggests planets are sweeping up stray dust inside.
The ring is similar to the Kuiper Belt, a vast reservoir of icy material left over from the formation of the planets in our solar system, and the frozen debris could be seeding the planets orbiting Fomalhaut with water and carbon, the building blocks of life.
Paul Kalas, of the University of California, says the star is about 200 million years old, an infant compared to our sun, which is 4.5 billion years old.
Experts believe the dust cloud may harbour one or more planets circling the star and causing the ring to reshape.
Dr Martin Hendry, an astronomer at Glasgow University, said the image was particularly exciting as only a handful of planets had been spotted outside our solar system, and most were giants that orbited extremely close to their stars.
He said: "The principle significance of this is it gives us an insight into the formation of our own solar system. The sun formed from a cloud of gas and the first planets accumulated around it. As they orbited they swept up debris in the dust clouds.
"This is very similar to what we are seeing in Fomalhaut. There is a good chance a lot of this dust will be ice and organic molecules that will collide with the planets and melt into liquid water."
Hubble astronomers will now use the telescope this summer to measure physical properties, including composition of the ring, using the colours it gives off.
Source: Scotland on Sunday
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