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Multiple Asteroid Belts Found Orbiting Nearby Star

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-word-on-asteroid-suspenders dept.

Kligat writes "Scientists have found two asteroid belts around the star Epsilon Eridani, the ninth closest star to our solar system. Epsilon Eridani also possesses an icy outer ring similar in composition to our Kuiper Belt, but with 100 times more material, and a Jovian mass planet near the edge of the innermost belt. Researchers believe that two other planets must orbit the 850 million year old star near the other two belts. Terrestrial planets are possible, but not yet indicated."

2 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those of you who dont want to RTFA but want some reference on why this is important, let me put a quote for you:

    "Studying Epsilon Eridani is like having a time machine to look at our solar system when it was young,"

  2. More Informative Article by tirerim · · Score: 5, Informative

    This one actually gives some information on how they detected the belts (short version: it's based on infrared emissions that could only come from rocky debris).

    And here is the actual paper on arXiv, if you want the full technical details of their methods.