University of Cambridge | 2016 May 18
Astronomers have found the first evidence of comets around a star similar to the sun, providing an opportunity to study what our solar system was like as a ‘baby’.
[c][attachment=0]345710B600000578-3597034-An_image_taken_using_the_Atacama_Large_Millimeter_Array_ALMA_sho-m-87_1463588401920[1].jpg[/attachment][/c][hr][/hr]An international team of astronomers have found evidence of ice and comets orbiting a nearby sun-like star, which could give a glimpse into how our own solar system developed.
Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, detected very low levels of carbon monoxide gas around the star, in amounts that are consistent with the comets in our own solar system.
The results ... are a first step in establishing the properties of comet clouds around sun-like stars just after the time of their birth. ...
The star in this study, HD 181327, has a mass about 30% greater than the sun and is located 160 light years away in the Painter constellation. The system is about 23 million years old, whereas our solar system is 4.6 billion years old. ...
Using ALMA, the astronomers observed the star, which is surrounded by a ring of dust caused by the collisions of comets, asteroids and other bodies. It’s likely that this star has planets in orbit around it, but they are impossible to detect using current telescopes. ...
Exocometary Gas in the HD 181327 Debris Ring - S. Marino et al
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1605.05331 > 17 May 2016
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=34074