|
|
 |
SPACE-SOLAR SYSTEM
This artist-s conception released 29 November, 2005 by NASA compares a hypothetical solar system centered around a tiny "sun" (R-top) to a known solar system centered around a star about the same size as our Sun called 55 Cancri. Astronomers using a combination of ground-based and orbiting telescopes, including NASA-s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, discovered the beginnings of such a miniature solar system 500 light-years away in the Chamaeleon constellation. The tiny system consists of an unusually small "failed" star, or brown dwarf called Cha 110913-773444, and a surrounding disk of gas and dust that might one day form planets. At a mass of only eight times that of Jupiter, the brown dwarf is actually smaller than several known extrasolar planets. The largest planet in the 55 Cancri system is about four Jupiter masses.The astronomers, lead by Kevin Luhman at Penn State, speculate that the disk around Cha 110913-773444 might have enough mass to make a small gas giant and a few Earth-sized rocky planets, as depicted here around the little brown dwarf. AFP PHOTO/HO/NASA/JPL/GETTY OUT/RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE
|
|
|
|
Detalii fotografie |
| Loc: |
|
- UNITED STATES, 30 noe |
|
| Sursa: |
|
AFP / Mediafax Foto |
|
| Fotograf: |
|
HO |
|
| Data: |
|
30 Noiembrie 2005 |
|
| Dimensiuni: |
|
3000 x 2400 (4.09 MB) |
|
|
|
|
|
|