SAN DIEGO, Jan. 8 — Astronomers studying radio waves in space say they have found a monster embryonic star in the constellation Orion that might have the potential to form planets. Scientists have identified dozens of possible planets outside our solar system, but all are believed to be orbiting stars about the mass of the sun. This is the first time astronomers have spotted a so-called protostar that has about 10 times the Sun’s mass.
THE SIGN that planets might be possible around the protostar — known to scientists as G192.16-3.82 and located 6,000 light-years from Earth — is the presence of a disk of dust and gas circling it. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers), the distance light travels in a year.
This feature, called an accretion disk, has about the same diameter as our solar system, according to scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. In the case of stars like our sun, planets coalesce from material in the disk.
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-Administrator / Owner
"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed
THE SIGN that planets might be possible around the protostar — known to scientists as G192.16-3.82 and located 6,000 light-years from Earth — is the presence of a disk of dust and gas circling it. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers), the distance light travels in a year.
This feature, called an accretion disk, has about the same diameter as our solar system, according to scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. In the case of stars like our sun, planets coalesce from material in the disk.
Want to learn more?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/513264.asp
------------------
-Administrator / Owner
"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed