Science
Related: About this forumPlanet-Forming Disk Vanishes Into Thin Air
July 5, 2012 | 10:45 am
By Ken Croswell, ScienceNOW
Some 460 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, a thick disk of dust swirled around a young star named TYC 8241 2652 1, where rocky planets like our own were arising. Then, in less than 2 years, the disk just vanished. Thats the unprecedented observation astronomers report in a new study, out today. Even more intriguing: The same thing may have happened in our own solar system.
Born about 10 million years ago, the TYC 8241 2652 1 system was chugging along just fine before 2009. Its so-called circumstellar disk glowed at the infrared wavelength of 10 microns, indicating it was warm and lay close to a star in the same sort of region that, in our own suns neighborhood, gave rise to the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The infrared data reveal that the dust was about 180°C and located as close to its star as Mercury is to the sun.
By January 2010, however, nearly all infrared light from the dusty disk had vanished. We had never seen anything like this before, says astronomer Carl Melis of the University of California, San Diego. We were all scratching our heads and wondering what the hell did we do wrong? But subsequent observations with both infrared satellites and ground-based telescopes confirmed the surprising discovery, he says: The disk was gone.
Melis and his colleagues report the mystery online today in Nature but they dont know what caused it. Its very bizarre, he says. Nothing like this was ever predicted. He says theres no way something could eclipse the infrared-emitting disk for more than 2 years, because such an object would be immense. Furthermore, the star itself didnt fade ...
http://m.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/planet-forming-disk-disappears/
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)That's just weird.
independentpiney
(1,510 posts)not surprising considering the economy.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Festivito
(13,452 posts)Don't Panic.
lastlib
(23,239 posts)Vacuum, maybe......
Or maybe this guy came along: