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Supernova May Explain How Planets are Formed
ExE122 writes "A young pulsar that formed from a supernova which happened about 100,000 years ago and is sitting 13,000 light years away may solve some questions about the origins of Earth. From the article: 'Scientists think they have solved the mystery of how planets form around a star born in a violent supernova explosion, saying they have detected for the first time a swirling disk of debris from which planets can rise. The discovery is surprising because the dusty disk orbiting the pulsar, or dead star, resembles the cloud of gas and dust from which Earth emerged. Scientists say the latest finding should shed light on how planetary systems form.'"
A note about the article is that any planets that might be formed from the cloud of debris would be orbiting a pulsar Even if it has planets, it doesn't tell us much about how our own solar system could have developed.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
Have scientists actually seen the cloud of gas and dust from which Earth emerged 4.6 billion years ago, or is this just wild speculation?
Ever heard of Zodiacal light?
Any cloud of gas would have been blown out of the system at the early stage of the Sun's evolution (T-Tauri phase), but some dust remains in the solar system. We see that today, too.
The article says that any planets which form are likely to be uninhabitable because they're, to put it bluntly, made out of reactor waste.
Why couldn't you have radiation-tolerant species?
If they went on to have multicellular descendants, then intelligent ones, those descendants could build cheap nuclear spacecraft including Orion-class vehicles and operate them without fear of radiation poisoning.