Hubble og Spitzer

Spitzer And Hubble Capture Evolving Planetary Systems

The young star observed by Hubble is 50 million to 250 million years old. This is old enough to theoretically have gas planets, but young enough that rocky planets like Earth may still be forming. The six older stars studied by Spitzer average 4 billion years old, nearly the same age as the Sun. They are known to have gas planets, and rocky planets may also be present. Prior to these findings, rings of planetary debris, or "debris discs," around stars the size of the Sun had rarely been observed, because they are fainter and more difficult to see than those around more massive stars.