http://truthufo.blogspot.com/: The birth of an exoplanet similar to Earth

Friday, 22 August 2008

The birth of an exoplanet similar to Earth

HD 113766 is the name of a binary star system (a double star), around which astronomers suspect that a rocky planet like the Earth is being formed. Or rather, around one of two stars. It is aged 10 to 16 million years, and astronomers believe that this is exactly the right period for the formation of rocky planets. HD 113766 is located 424 light-years of the Solar System.

Artist's view of the system HD 113766

The two yellow spots of the image are the two stars of the system. The ring brownish material closely around the central star is a huge belt of dusty materials, 100 times larger than our asteroid belt, and sufficient to "build" a planet the size of Mars or even greater. The rocky material in the belt are the building blocks of the genesis of a planet, dust grains s'agglomérant to form rocks which successive collisions caused by the continued training of more massive rocky body called planètesimaux. The belt is located in the middle of the "habitable zone terrestrial" system, ie the region around a star where liquid water may be present on any possible rocky planet. The Earth is located in the middle of the Earth habitable zone of our Sun.

With the Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have determined that the materials comprising the belt HD 113866 were in a state more advanced than the substance of which was made up our Solar System primitive. But not so advanced, however, that the matter component planets or asteroids mature. The belt of dust would therefore consist of a mixture of materials just to be a training phase of a planet similar to Earth. This mixture is mainly composed of silicate rock and metal sulphide (pyrite), similar to materials found in lava flows.

On illustration, the outer ring white shows a concentration of dust ice also detected in the system. This material is at a position equivalent to that of the asteroid belt in our Solar System, but contains about six times less material than the ring. Astronomers suggest that Spitzer observations can not say if events occur in this belt of ice, but they believe it could later become a source of water for a planet that develops currently in the internal ring hotter.