Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Model Helps Predict Earth-Sized Planets

Posted by timothy on from the colonization-time dept.

look over yonder writes "A new computer model created by astronomers from the Smithsonian Center and Astrophysics and the University of Utah predicts that systems which harbour Earth-sized planets will have a fingerprint of a ring of dust orbiting the star. This model will make it much easier for astronomers to locate stars and predict the size of planets orbiting it by simply measuring how bright the star system is at infrared (IR) wavelengths of light. Stars with dusty disks are brighter in the IR than stars without disks. The more dust a star system holds, the brighter it is in the IR."

3 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Yet again, maybe not by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Earth-sized moons of big planets can have a more friendly enviroment than earth-sized planets.

    Or maybe they can't. We've only found one planet with a friendly environment so far, and this is really too small of a dataset to generalize.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  2. Timescales by Tango42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This method finds planets as they form, which means they will probably be billions of years away from evolving life. Although it is certainly interesting, I doubt such observations will have any direct uses. We may be able to understand our own solar system a little more by seeing how others form, but as far as finding ETIs or potential colony sites, this won't be much help. The current methods of finding planets (mainly by wobbling stars, AFAIK) is more likely to find things of interest.

  3. Does it predict us? by Valdrax · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously, how much dust is in OUR solar system, and does this predict the existence of planetary systems like ours?

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").