spacetoday.net: Newborn solar system full of carbon

Posted: Thu, Jun 8, 2006, 7:35 AM ET (1135 GMT)
Beta Pictoris carbon-rich dust disk illus. (NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook)

Studies of a solar system forming around a nearby star have turned up a surprising abundance of carbon gas, a discovery that could rewrite models of how solar systems form. Researchers used NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft to study Beta Pictoris, a star surrounded by a dust disk thought to be only 20 million years old. The results, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, revealed far higher concentrations of carbon gas in the dust dusk. The gas likely comes from the collisions of planetesimals forming in the dust disk. Scientists said they couldn't determine at this stage whether the disk was going through a stage in its development like what the Sun's protoplanetary disk experienced early in its history, or if this is a fundamentally different system, one that could lead to planets with methane-rich atmospheres and mountains made of giant diamonds.