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Article: A place like home? Planetary formation; Signs of a newly forming solar system.(planets orbiting Zeta Leporis)(Science and Technology)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- June 9, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SOMETHING is kicking up a lot of dust around Zeta Leporis, a star not unlike the sun that is located 70 light years from earth. According to Christine Chen and Michael Jura of the University of California, Los Angeles, that makes "Zeta Lep", as it is familiarly known, rather special among the small number of stars around which dust has been detected. At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California, last week, Dr Chen and Dr Jura said that they saw the dust as evidence that an asteroid belt is forming around the star. That could be a precursor to the formation of rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars-and earth.
Over the past few years ...