Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk surrounding a well-studied young star named Beta Pictoris.

Asteroids and comets orbiting Beta Pictoris might contain large amounts of carbon-rich material, such as graphite and methane. Planets forming from or impacted by such bodies would be very different from those in our solar system and might have methane-rich atmospheres, like Titan, a moon of Saturn.

"We have learned in the past ten years is that our galaxy is filled with other solar systems, and each one is different from the next," said Dr. Marc Kuchner of NASA Goddard, an expert on extra-solar planets. "If carbon-rich worlds are forming in Beta Pictoris, they might be covered with tar and smog, with mountains made of giant diamonds. Life on such a planet is not implausible, but it certainly would be exotic".

second possibility is that Beta Pictoris might be similar to our solar system long ago. While local asteroids and comets don't seem carbon-rich today, some research suggests that certain meteorites called enstatite chondrite meteorites formed in a carbon-rich environment, and some scientists speculate that Jupiter has a carbon core.

"We might be observing processes that occurred early in our solar system's development," said Nature co-author Dr. Alycia Weinberger of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The mere presence of gas in the Beta Pictoris disk has been a mystery. Theoretical models predict that intense light from the young star should rapidly blow the gas away. The overabundance of carbon gas, discovered now for the first time, solves this mystery. Carbon has special properties that keep the gas in orbit around the star.



Posted by: Sean    Source

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