Planets May Be Forming Around Nearby Star
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A star 33 light-years away may be giving birth to new planets, and we are close enough to see it happen, U.S. astronomers said Thursday.
They have seen evidence of a disk of dust orbiting the star -- a disk like the one our solar system is believed to have formed from. Within the disk is a clear swath, which suggests a planet has started to form and has scooped up some of the dust.
The star, called AU Microscopium, is dimmer and redder than our Sun, so any planets orbiting it are likely to be cold. The finding was published in the online Science Express version of the journal Science.
