Alien Dust Kicked Up By Baby Planet Collisions

[mickw]

In the search for other planetary systems like Earth that are capable of hosting extraterrestrial life, scientists have come across some very alien systems indeed. But the latest ones have researchers truly perplexed.

New observations have found evidence for planet formation around stars much more massive than the sun, as well as dusty debris – thought to be leftovers from collisions between rocky planetary embryos. There's a twist: The dust has a completely different chemical makeup from the composition of our own solar system.

These new findings were presented this month at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

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