alle@ihuxb.UUCP (08/11/83)
This is reprinted from The Chicago Tribune of August 10, 1983
Earth finds a new neighbor
Scientific snoops believe it's a 2d solar system
>From Chicago Tribune Wires
Pasadena, Calif. -- Astronomers using an infrared satellite telescope
have found the first direct evidence that there may be another solar
system in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists announced Tuesday.
Don Bane of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the Infrared
Astronomical Satellite, known as IRAS, found a shell or ring of large
particles around Vega, the third brightest star in the sky.
"The material could be a solar system at a different stage of
development from our own," Bane said. "Because of Vega's relative
youth [less than 1 billion years compared with the Sun's 4.6 bilion
years], the material around it cannot have reached the same stage of
evolution as our solar system."
"The discovery, however, does provide the first direct evidence
that solid objects of substantial size exist around a star other than
the Sun."
On a scale of 1 to 10, Bane added, the discovery is "an 8 or a
9."
Vega is close to Earth in relation to other stars. It is twice
the size of the Sun and 60 times as luminous. It is 26 light-years
from Earth, the distance traveled by light in that length of time.
The nearest star is 4.3 light-years away.
IRAS, which measures the amount of infrared waves, or heat
energy, of objects in space, was launched in January as an effort by
the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. Its data is received
by a tracking center at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Chilton,
England.
H. H. Aumann of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Fred Gillett of
Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona were studying Vega as a
source for calibrating the telescope on the satellite when they found
that the star was much brighter and larger in infrared waves than
expected from IRAS observations of similar stars.
The scientists determined that the radiation was coming from an
extended region around Vega stretching 7.4 billion miles out from the
star. That would make its solar system twice the diameter of Earth's.
The material is 300 degrees below zero, about the same
temperature as particles in the innermost rings of Saturn.
Because smaller material would have fallen back into the star,
the scientists believe, the particles circling Vega could range from
the size of buckshot to the size of a planet.
The particles probably were left from Vega's formation and may
resemble objects found in Earth's solar system such as asteroids,
meteorites and other debris, the scientists said.
"The discovery is the first opportunity to study what may be an
early solar system [forming] from stellar debris, as our solar system
is believed to have formed," Bane said.
End of Story
What an exciting development!!!
Allen England at BTL Naperville, Illinois
ihnp4!ihuxb!alleREM@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (08/18/83)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> Indeed "Sol" is the name of our star, also called the "Sun", and there is only one Solar system, ours. It seems to me we could use the generic term "planetary systems" and not confuse anyone. Anyone have a way to get this suggestion to the major wire services?
Kenny.OSNI@SYSTEM-M.PHOENIX.HONEYWELL@sri-unix.UUCP (08/25/83)
From: Kevin B. Kenny <Kenny.OSNI @ SYSTEM-M.PHOENIX.HONEYWELL>
I seem to recall that several years back someone found fairly conclusive
evidence for an object several times the mass of Jupiter (too big for
planet, too small for star) orbiting a nearby star (61 Cygni?). Can
anyone refresh my memory about this? Is this finding in debate along
with the putative planetary system about Barnard's Star?
/k**2 (Kevin Kenny) [Kenny.OSNI%PCO-MULTICS@CISL-Service-Multics
(host is also called MIT-DevMultics or just CISL,
depending on how up-to-date your host table is.)]