Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EXO WORLDS
Astronomers report startling find on planet formation
by Staff Writers
Santiago (AFP) Nov 30, 2012


Astronomers are reporting a find that challenges traditional theories as to how rocky planets -- such as Earth -- are formed.

Besides Earth, our solar system has three other rocky planets: Mercury, Venus and Mars. They have a solid surface and core of heavy metals, and differ from planets that are large spinning bodies of gas, like Jupiter or Saturn.

The new findings suggest rocky planets may be even more common in the universe than previously thought. The research was presented Friday in the Astrophysical Journal of Letters.

The astronomers used a cutting-edge telescope called ALMA, on a mountaintop 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) high in the remote desert of northern Chile.

They peered out into space at a brown dwarf named ISO-Oph 102. A brown dwarf is an object that is like a star but too small to shine as brightly.

Traditional theory holds that rocky planets form through the random collision of microscopic particles in the disc of material that surrounds a star. The particles, like fine soot, stick together and grow.

Scientists thought the outer reaches of brown dwarves were different. They believed the grains there could not cling together because the discs were too sparse. Also, particles would be moving too fast to stick together after colliding.

But lo and behold, in the disc around ISO-Oph 102, the astronomers found things that, for them at least, were big -- millimeter-sized grains.

"Solid grains of that size shouldn't be able to form in the cold outer regions of a disc around a brown dwarf, but it appears that they do," said Luca Ricci of the California Institute of Technology, who led a team of astronomers based in the United States, Europe and Chile.

"We can't be sure if a whole rocky planet could develop there, or already has, but we're seeing the first steps. So we're going to have to change our assumptions about conditions required for solids to grow."

.


Related Links
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EXO WORLDS
Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?
London, UK (SPX) Nov 29, 2012
Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast belts of comets surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host nothing larger than Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets. The scientists publish their work in papers in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy and As ... read more


EXO WORLDS
China's Chang'e-3 to land on moon next year

Moon crater yields impact clues

Study: Moon basin formed by giant impact

NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Gets Final Science Instrument Installed

EXO WORLDS
Opportunity Gets To Work On Interesting Rock

Regional Dust Storm Dissipating

One Year After Launch, Curiosity Rover Busy on Mars

Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

EXO WORLDS
Why Study Plants in Space?

Who's Killing the Space Program?

Fly me to the universe

UK Secures Billion Pound Package For Space Investment

EXO WORLDS
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

EXO WORLDS
Spacewalks on agenda for new space crew

NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission

Three ISS crew return to Earth in Russian capsule

Station Crew Off Duty After Undocking

EXO WORLDS
Japan Schedules Radar Satellite Launch

Arianespace ready for next Soyuz and Ariane missions

Who will challenge Dragon? Dragon spaceship postponed until March

South Korean rocket launch suspended

EXO WORLDS
Astronomers report startling find on planet formation

A Sky Full of Planets

Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs

Dust Grains Highlight the Path to Planet Formation

EXO WORLDS
The music of the silks

NASA Technologists Test 'Game-Changing' Data-Processing Technology

UTC Aerospace Systems Selects Headwall Hyperspectral Imaging Sensor For SYERS-2 Program

Samsung launches new Internet-connected camera




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement