|
|
Article: Nativity story? Extrasolar planets.(Solar-system formation)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 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)
|
Astronomers may have stumbled on the birth of a solar system
WHY do stars twinkle? It is because they are so distant that they are, in effect, point sources of light, whose rays are easily diverted by small disturbances in the earth's atmosphere. Some stars, however, twinkle more than others. The strangest example of a star's twinkling was described this week by two astronomers at the Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets conference in Washington, DC. The star in question, KH 15D, is a young, sun-like star in the constellation of Monoceros. Its twinkling is significant because it could provide clues about the mechanism of planetary formation ...