Dusty Disc May Mean Other Earths

DoraLives writes "According to the BBC, astronomers say they have evidence for Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star. The star in question is Vega, which is nice and close (as stars go), quite young (also as stars go), and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Apparently, 'Vega has a disc of dust circling it, and at least one large planet which could sweep debris aside allowing smaller worlds like Earth to exist.' Should be interesting to keep an eye on it as the years roll by as the disk rotates and our optical powers keep growing."

Terrestrial Planet Finder Links

[js7a]

Until we get good stellar-occluding interferometers and coronagraphs, we can't be sure. Once we get those in place, it becomes possible to determine the atmospheric composition (i.e., O2, H2O, N2, etc.)

Here are Terrestrial Planet Finder links at:

• NASA JPL [nasa.gov] (Flash animation [nasa.gov])
• Caltech [caltech.edu]
• Space.com [space.com]

Re:Life imitates art

[DeadVulcan]

Vega was the source of the extraterrestrial signal in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos."

You mean "Contact," surely. And unfortunately, although it was the source of the signal, the system itself contained no life. So I don't think we can draw any parallels here.

Re:Dune... Arrakis... Desert Planet

[garyrich]

Eh? offtopic? the mods probably don't remember that Dune was a satellite of Vega...

Re:to bad we're looking in the past

[Daniel Dvorkin]

As opposed to the garden-variety, non-massive nuclear strike?

Well, yeah, actually. Like what would have happened to Washington and Moscow if the Cold War had gone hot, as opposed to what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not just one big boom, but a whole lot of them, one after another, until absolutely nothing is left.

No One's Found Earth-Like Planets at Vega...Yet

[reallocate]

This is an all-too-common example of sloppy BBC reporting. Evidence of Earth-like planets at Vega has not been found. What's been found is a dust disk that conforms to theories that very large planets ormed early in a system's development will migrate to larger orbits, dragging a lot of debris that would otherwise crash on small planets and inhibit life there. (Still a lot of rocks left over to crash and burn, though. Take a look at all those craters on the Moon. Earth would look the same, if not for erosion.)

Good news, though, but not as good as imaging a small planet and getting positive results for water, oxygen and methane.

Re:Earth is a proper noun..

[Suppafly]

Sol is the proper name of our solar system, just as Alpha Centauri is the proper name for that particular solar system.


No, Sol is the name of our sun. The system of our sun is the Solar System.