NASA Blueshift
NASA Blueshift
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Blueshift - November 17, 2009: Dust in the Interstellar Wind
5 minutes Posted Nov 17, 2009 at 8:39 pm.
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The makings of new planets lie in dusty, debris-filled disks rotating around stars, held in place and shaped by the influence of their host stars. But the dust, ice, and small bodies in these planet-forming disks also feel the effects of a system's motion through space - and interaction with interstellar gas can warp a dusty disk into a weird and unexpected shape. We spoke with Goddard astrophysicist John Debes about his team's research into these oddly-shaped disks. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists are investigating these disks in hopes of finding clues about how other planetary systems are formed - and perhaps even discovering the origins of our own.