Feb 15 2002
From The Space Library
Scientists found that a bright blue ring of dust surrounds Earth’s solar system, beginning outside of Saturn’s orbit and extending beyond the orbit of Neptune. However, viewed from outside the solar system, this band of dust appears to surround the Sun. The discovery of the dust ring provided empirical support for the idea that this feature around a mature star indicates that the star harbors a planetary system. Therefore, researchers planning missions would be able, based on whether the star has a dust ring, to narrow down the list of which stars to study in their search for planets and planetary systems. ESA scientist Markus Landgraf had led the research team, which had made the discovery using data collected by Pioneer 10 and 11. (ESA, “ESA Scientist Discovers a Way To Shortlist Stars That Might Have Planets,” ESA news release SNR 1-2002, 15 February 2002.)
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