Found: First-ever evidence of comets beyond the solar system orbiting a sun-like star
LA TimesJust as we have grown accustomed to stories of increasingly small planets being discovered around distant stars, along comes a new study that ups the ante. Instead, they used the European Space Observatory’s ALMA radio telescope to measure low levels of carbon monoxide gas in a debris disk that had formed around the star. “A system is usually expected to evolve from a protoplanetary disk phase to a debris disk phase,” said Sebastian Marino, a doctoral student at Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy and the lead author on the paper. Using ALMA, the researchers were able to detect carbon monoxide in the ring, which was probably released as icy comets collided with one another, releasing gas and dust. ALSO: Why male spiders need to get their game on -- or die Inside a distant superbubble astronomers find hot gas, young stars Fossilized space dust from 2.7 billion years ago holds surprise about Earth’s ancient atmosphere
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