Along with some other young stars, it was found in the 1980s to have a ring of dusty debris. And in 1991 astronomers learned that this debris ring was unusually warm and close to its parent star, unlike other disks that are farther out, and hence colder. This dust, given its known properties, should spiral into a star within 20,000 years, according to current theories of physics and star formation, scientists say. But this star is much older. The new study, funded by NASA, used the Keck Observatory in Hawaii to examine how much light is reflected by the ring of debris, which absorbs visible light from the star and emits it in the infrared wavelength.
Similar techniques allow scientists to estimate the composition of asteroids closer to home.
Chen then calculated that the ring of debris must be confined to region between 2.5 and 12.2 astronomical units from the star. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun, and the Asteroid Belt sits between Mars and Jupiter, 1.5 and 5.2 AU from the Sun, respectively. Echoes of our solar system Leading models of solar system formation hold that as the Sun gathered itself together out of a cloud of gas and dust, the leftovers settled into a vast disk that rotated around the newborn star and gradually flattened out. In the early years of our solar system, dust grains collided and coalesced, and the seeds of asteroids , comets and planets were formed. The gravity of some of the more distant protoplanets attracted gas, and Jupiter and the other gas giants developed.