A Solar System in the Making

A Glimpse at Planetary Creation

Report by:

FComm. DL Wey

DCOSR: SFS – SFC

The search for earth like bodies in space has been one carried out for decades, with astronomers hoping that our little corner of the cosmos is not so terribly unique. However, until recently, such observations were merely the realm of science fiction.

Now, astronomers of the joint astronomy center, UCLA, JPL, and others have led to the first real evidence of what appears to be a solar system in the making.

With the use of powerful telescopes, and peering into before unseen areas of stellar formation, have been found four stars… each in what appears to be the act of creating planets.

The most prominent, located in the Centaurus constellation [and designated HR4796] is a doughnut shaped disk some 220 light years distant [a light year being equal to 5.9 trillion miles]. If confirmed, it (along with the other three, i.e., Vega, Beta Pectoris, and Fomalhaut) will be the first actual proof of the possibility that such planetary formation is common.

Research into the evolution of solar systems will be conducted by observing the gas shrouded regions from birth through old age. Currently, the observed stellar bodies suggest an age of some ten’s to perhaps a few hundreds of million years in age; A far cry from the four and a half billion years of our own system.

In the case of Beta Pectoris and Vega, observations have shown there to be unexplainable ‘blobs’ of bright material off to the sides of these stars. These mysterious objects (currently thought to be proto-planets) could be distant galaxies that turned up in the photographs. However, if proven to be part of the stars gravitational system, they could rewrite the very stories of planetary creation.