California Expert Software

Introduction

NASA is making progress in learning how planets are formed in solar systems. But, it is a two step forward, one step back process.

"New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal surprisingly large dust clouds around several stars."

Image above: This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that these catastrophes continue to occur around stars even after they have developed full-sized planets, when they are as old as one hundred million years. For reference, our own Sun, at 4.5 billion years old, is far past...

... this late stage of planet formation. + Click for full image Image coutesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Introduction
NASA is making progress in learning how planets are formed in solar systems. But, it is a two step forward, one step back process. "New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal surprisingly large dust clouds around several stars." Image above: This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that these catastrophes continue to occur around stars even after they have developed full-sized planets, when they are as old as one hundred million years. For reference, our own Sun, at 4.5 billion years old, is far past...

Pre-planetary chaos