Astronomers Discover a Comet Factory
- 11 years ago
Using ALMA, an array of telescopes located in Chile, a team of astronomers has carefully observed a star and its surrounding disc of space dust and gas. For the first time, they have observed and modeled a dust trap, which helps to explain how the rocky cores of planets are formed.
While observing a star around 400 light years away from Earth, astronomers have found what they call a comet factory.
The gravity from the mass of a star pulls particles from space creating a disc, where the particles collide with each other because of dust traps.
A concentration of gas makes the dust more dense, and creates an accumulation of particles.
Using ALMA, an array of telescopes located in Chile, a team led by Nienke van der Marel from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands observed the star and its surrounding disc of space dust and gas.
For the first time, they have found evidence of a dust trap, which helps to explain why the dust particles remain stuck together and do not break apart.
Van der Marel said: “in the near future ALMA will be able to observe dust traps closer to their parent stars, where the same mechanisms are at work. Such dust traps really would be the cradles for new-born planets.”
While observing a star around 400 light years away from Earth, astronomers have found what they call a comet factory.
The gravity from the mass of a star pulls particles from space creating a disc, where the particles collide with each other because of dust traps.
A concentration of gas makes the dust more dense, and creates an accumulation of particles.
Using ALMA, an array of telescopes located in Chile, a team led by Nienke van der Marel from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands observed the star and its surrounding disc of space dust and gas.
For the first time, they have found evidence of a dust trap, which helps to explain why the dust particles remain stuck together and do not break apart.
Van der Marel said: “in the near future ALMA will be able to observe dust traps closer to their parent stars, where the same mechanisms are at work. Such dust traps really would be the cradles for new-born planets.”