Violent Adolescent Planet Caught Infrared Handed

Other

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Hd172555, Protoplanet, Impact, Planet Formation

Scientific paper

The prevailing view of planet formation depicts accumulation of progressively larger objects, culminating in accretionary impacts between Moon- to Mars-sized protoplanets. Cosmochemists have found evidence in chondritic meteorites for such violent events, and the Moon is thought to have involved a huge impact between a Mars-sized object and the still-growing proto-Earth. Now we may have evidence for a large impact during planet formation around another star. Carey Lisse (Applied Physics Lab of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) and colleagues from the Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore), the University of Cambridge (UK), the Open University (Milton Keyes, UK), the University of Georgia (Athens, GA), Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA), and the University of Rochester (New York) analyzed infrared spectra obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope. They found a prominent peak in the spectrum at 9.3 micrometers, and two smaller ones at slightly lower and higher wavelengths. These peaks are consistent with the presence of SiO gas, a product expected to be produced by a highly energetic impact. The spectral measurements also allowed Lisse and his colleagues to estimate the size of the dust and they found that there is an abundance of micrometer-sized dust grains. This argues for a fresh source of fine material during the past 0.1 million years. That source may have been an impact between two protoplanets surrounding this young star.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Violent Adolescent Planet Caught Infrared Handed does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Violent Adolescent Planet Caught Infrared Handed, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Violent Adolescent Planet Caught Infrared Handed will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-804288

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.