HexMonkey
May 28, 2004, 03:08 AM
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, still in its rookie season, has loaded the bases with three out-of-this-world observations -- including evidence of a possible infant planet, astronomers said Thursday.
Each finding supports the belief that planets with the ingredients for life assemble around other stars.
The most surprising discovery points to the formation of the youngest known planet -- a Jupiter-size world less than a million years old.
Spitzer also identified for the first time water and other chemicals necessary for life in the disc-shaped planetary construction zones around young stars.
And it spotted planetary construction around 300 stars nearly 14,000 light-years from Earth, a record distance.
Announced by scientists during a news briefing in Washington, the discoveries raise the prospect that our 4.6 billion-year-old solar system is just one of many stars encircled by planets with some of the key ingredients for life.
"It knocked our socks off," said University of Wisconsin astronomer Ed Churchwell, one of the scientists responsible for the findings. "We're incredibly excited."
Full article (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2596338)
Each finding supports the belief that planets with the ingredients for life assemble around other stars.
The most surprising discovery points to the formation of the youngest known planet -- a Jupiter-size world less than a million years old.
Spitzer also identified for the first time water and other chemicals necessary for life in the disc-shaped planetary construction zones around young stars.
And it spotted planetary construction around 300 stars nearly 14,000 light-years from Earth, a record distance.
Announced by scientists during a news briefing in Washington, the discoveries raise the prospect that our 4.6 billion-year-old solar system is just one of many stars encircled by planets with some of the key ingredients for life.
"It knocked our socks off," said University of Wisconsin astronomer Ed Churchwell, one of the scientists responsible for the findings. "We're incredibly excited."
Full article (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2596338)
