June 7th 06, 07:36 PM
June 7, 2006
Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745
RELEASE: 06-236
NASA'S FUSE FINDS INFANT SOLAR SYSTEM AWASH IN CARBON
Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or
FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk
surrounding a young star named Beta Pictoris.
The star and its emerging solar system are less than 20 million years
old, and planets may have already formed. The abundance of carbon gas
in the remaining debris disk indicates that Beta Pictoris' planets
could be carbon-rich worlds of graphite and methane, or the star's
environs might resemble our own solar system in its early days.
A team led by Aki Roberge of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md., presents the observation in the June 8 issue of
Nature. The new measurements make Beta Pictoris the first disk of its
kind whose gas has been comprehensively studied. The discovery
settles a long-standing scientific mystery about how the gas has
lingered in this debris disk, yet raises new questions about the
development of solar systems.
"There is much, much more carbon gas than anyone expected," said
Roberge, a NASA postdoctoral fellow and lead author on the Nature
report. "Could this be what our own solar system looked like when it
was young? Are we seeing the formation of new types of worlds? Either
prospect is fascinating."
The carbon gas detected by the spacecraft comes from unseen asteroids
or comets orbiting the star that collide with each other and release
material. The mere presence of gas in the Beta Pictoris disk has been
a mystery. Theoretical models predict that intense light from the
young star should rapidly blow the gas away. The overabundance of
carbon, discovered now for the first time, explains why the disk
retains so much gas. Carbon is less susceptible to expulsion than
other elements, and it retards the clearing effect.
Beta Pictoris, about 60 light years away from Earth, is 1.8 times more
massive than our sun. At eight to 20 million years old, it is very
young. This young star's disk was discovered in 1984. Earlier
observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck telescope
hinted that a Jupiter-like planet may have already formed in this
disk, and rocky terrestrial planets may be forming. Such planets
would be too small and faint to observe with current instruments.
The terrestrial planets in our solar system -- Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars -- formed from the collision of smaller planetary bodies
such as asteroids about five billion years ago. During the few
hundred million years after Earth was formed, asteroids and comets
might have smashed into our planet to deliver virtually all of the
water and organic material we see today. These materials are the
building blocks of life on Earth.
Asteroids and comets orbiting Beta Pictoris might contain large
amounts of carbon-rich material, such as graphite and methane.
Planets forming from or impacted by such bodies would be very
different from those in our solar system and might have methane-rich
atmospheres, like Titan, a moon of Saturn.
"What we have learned in the past ten years is that our galaxy is
filled with other solar systems, and each one is different from the
next," said Marc Kuchner of NASA Goddard, an expert on extra-solar
planets. "Beta Pictoris may be telling us something about the variety
of planets that might be out there; some might be carbon planets,
very different from the Earth."
Alternatively, Beta Pictoris might be similar to how our solar system
was long ago. While local asteroids and comets don't seem carbon-rich
today, some research suggests that certain meteorites called
enstatite chondrite meteorites formed in a carbon-rich environment.
Some scientists also speculate that Jupiter has a carbon core.
"We might be observing processes that occurred early in our solar
system's development," said Nature co-author Alycia Weinberger of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Other co-authors on the report are Paul Feldman, Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, and Magali Deleuil and Jean-Claude Bouret,
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille in France. The FUSE project
is a NASA Explorer mission, developed in cooperation with France's
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and the Canadian Space Agency by
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; University of Colorado,
Boulder; and University of California, Berkeley. Goddard manages the
program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
For more information on the Beta Pictoris discovery, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/betapicMM.html
For more information on FUSE, visit: http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu
-end-
Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745
RELEASE: 06-236
NASA'S FUSE FINDS INFANT SOLAR SYSTEM AWASH IN CARBON
Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or
FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk
surrounding a young star named Beta Pictoris.
The star and its emerging solar system are less than 20 million years
old, and planets may have already formed. The abundance of carbon gas
in the remaining debris disk indicates that Beta Pictoris' planets
could be carbon-rich worlds of graphite and methane, or the star's
environs might resemble our own solar system in its early days.
A team led by Aki Roberge of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md., presents the observation in the June 8 issue of
Nature. The new measurements make Beta Pictoris the first disk of its
kind whose gas has been comprehensively studied. The discovery
settles a long-standing scientific mystery about how the gas has
lingered in this debris disk, yet raises new questions about the
development of solar systems.
"There is much, much more carbon gas than anyone expected," said
Roberge, a NASA postdoctoral fellow and lead author on the Nature
report. "Could this be what our own solar system looked like when it
was young? Are we seeing the formation of new types of worlds? Either
prospect is fascinating."
The carbon gas detected by the spacecraft comes from unseen asteroids
or comets orbiting the star that collide with each other and release
material. The mere presence of gas in the Beta Pictoris disk has been
a mystery. Theoretical models predict that intense light from the
young star should rapidly blow the gas away. The overabundance of
carbon, discovered now for the first time, explains why the disk
retains so much gas. Carbon is less susceptible to expulsion than
other elements, and it retards the clearing effect.
Beta Pictoris, about 60 light years away from Earth, is 1.8 times more
massive than our sun. At eight to 20 million years old, it is very
young. This young star's disk was discovered in 1984. Earlier
observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck telescope
hinted that a Jupiter-like planet may have already formed in this
disk, and rocky terrestrial planets may be forming. Such planets
would be too small and faint to observe with current instruments.
The terrestrial planets in our solar system -- Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars -- formed from the collision of smaller planetary bodies
such as asteroids about five billion years ago. During the few
hundred million years after Earth was formed, asteroids and comets
might have smashed into our planet to deliver virtually all of the
water and organic material we see today. These materials are the
building blocks of life on Earth.
Asteroids and comets orbiting Beta Pictoris might contain large
amounts of carbon-rich material, such as graphite and methane.
Planets forming from or impacted by such bodies would be very
different from those in our solar system and might have methane-rich
atmospheres, like Titan, a moon of Saturn.
"What we have learned in the past ten years is that our galaxy is
filled with other solar systems, and each one is different from the
next," said Marc Kuchner of NASA Goddard, an expert on extra-solar
planets. "Beta Pictoris may be telling us something about the variety
of planets that might be out there; some might be carbon planets,
very different from the Earth."
Alternatively, Beta Pictoris might be similar to how our solar system
was long ago. While local asteroids and comets don't seem carbon-rich
today, some research suggests that certain meteorites called
enstatite chondrite meteorites formed in a carbon-rich environment.
Some scientists also speculate that Jupiter has a carbon core.
"We might be observing processes that occurred early in our solar
system's development," said Nature co-author Alycia Weinberger of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Other co-authors on the report are Paul Feldman, Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, and Magali Deleuil and Jean-Claude Bouret,
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille in France. The FUSE project
is a NASA Explorer mission, developed in cooperation with France's
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and the Canadian Space Agency by
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; University of Colorado,
Boulder; and University of California, Berkeley. Goddard manages the
program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
For more information on the Beta Pictoris discovery, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/betapicMM.html
For more information on FUSE, visit: http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu
-end-