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Credit: W. Holland
(JAC) et al.
Explanation:
These separate radio images reveal
three dusty debris disks
surrounding three bright, young, nearby stars
- evidence for
solar systems in formation.
From left to right are the stars
Fomalhaut,
Beta Pictoris,
and Vega,
their positions indicated by star symbols.
The false color maps show the intensity of submillimeter radio emission
from the surrounding dust.
Next to each dust "disk", a vertical bar illustrates the
present size
of our own solar system.
These observations are likely examples of what
our solar system
would have looked like to
distant radio astronomers
when it was only a few hundred million years old!
Astronomers speculate that bright blobs of emission
near Vega and Beta Pictoris may represent dust clouds
around developing giant planets.
The radio images were made using
detectors cooled to
near absolute zero
and the
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in
Hawaii.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: dust disk - planet formation
Publications with words: dust disk - planet formation
See also: