Posted on 02/26/2011 8:39:29 PM PST by Immerito
Scientists think they have seen a baby planet swirling to life around a very young sun-like star, about 350 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Chameleon. If they can confirm their discovery, it would be the earliest picture yet of a natal planetary system, further illuminating how planets are born.
Using the Very Large Telescope, astronomers were looking at a star called T Chamaeleontis, or T Cha, which is surrounded by a disc of dust and gas. They noticed a gap in the disc, and in two new studies, they say it could be a coalescing planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Ping.
very cool... Thanks!!
English "chameleon" is from the Latin chamaeleo which is from the Greek chamaileon which looks like a combination of the word for "ground" and the word for "lion"--and in fact it is said to be a calque of the Akkadian name for this kind of lizard, which literally translates as "ground lion."
The constellation is so far south that it wasn't recorded on any European star charts or named until the 1590s.
/mark
Well nice to know there aren’t global warmists stalking the place to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Great. We know more about the origins of a world 350 light years away then we know about the origins of our own President. Simply wonderful.
Baby planet, hhhmmm....Watch out, Obama might want to abort it.
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