Interstellar Dust Bunnies in Taurus: Baby Steps toward New Planets?(Forwarded)

Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii

Contacts:
Dr. Jonathan Williams
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
1-808-956-8355 (office)

Mr. Sean Andrews
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii at Manoa
1-808-956-7049 (office)

Mrs. Karen Rehbock
Assistant to the Director
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawaii at Manoa
1-808-956-6829

For immediate release: January 9, 2006

Interstellar Dust Bunnies in Taurus: Baby Steps toward New Planets?

Astronomers at the University of Hawaii today presented new evidence at
the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington,
DC, for the first steps in the formation of new planets from tiny dust
particles in orbit around young stars like the Sun.

Using sensitive radio cameras on two telescopes, the 15-m James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and 10-m Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
(CSO), at Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, graduate student Sean
Andrews and Dr. Jonathan Williams of the Institute for Astronomy
examined the swirling disks of gas and dust that surround young stars in
the Taurus region of the sky to determine how the dust changes as disks
evolve. They found that the disks rapidly disappear and concluded that
stars have only a few million years to get started on making planets, a
far shorter time than conventional theories require.

"We expected that disks would not disappear so quickly at radio
wavelengths," said Andrews, "but this was not the case in general. The
dust is either being dispersed, dumped onto the star, or growing into
large clumps that are difficult to detect." On a scale in which a
typical star's 10-billion-year lifetime is compressed to the average
human lifespan, the disks would disappear within the first week.

Previous work at shorter, infrared wavelengths had shown that the
innermost regions of disks disappear rapidly, but it was thought that
the outer parts, where the planets in our solar system reside and which
are most visible at longer, radio wavelengths, would last substantially
longer.

The work, which is published in The Astrophysical Journal and funded by
the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, also showed that the
dust around the stars emits more efficiently at longer wavelengths as
the disks evolve.

"This suggests that the dust particles are sticking together, much as
dust bunnies form under a bed," said Williams. He added, "This is the
first, albeit tiny, step toward forming new solar systems."

The observations were made at a range of frequencies from 350 GHz to 860
GHz, in three relatively transparent windows in the sky, which allow the
total mass of the planet-forming region in the disks to be measured.

The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii conducts
research into galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, and the sun. Its
faculty and staff are also involved in astronomy education, deep space
missions, and in the development and management of the observatories on
Haleakala and Mauna Kea.

Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawaii is the state’s sole
public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of
undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs
on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers
across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawaii, the
U.S. mainland, and around the world.

High Resolution Images:

Photos of Dr. Williams and Mr. Andrews,
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press...ses/Dust-1-06/