New Spitzer & Gemini findings:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/rocky...-the-40289.aspx
Full Version: Rocky Planets Forming in the Pleiades?
Thanks Nprev....
I was going to post this myself.
Research paper can be found here http://fr.arxiv.org/abs/0711.2111
I plan to read it this evening.
From what the Spitzer dust surveys are observing, it seems that the gas in a forming planetary system is lost within 10 million years, which means gas giants HAVE to form fast. But the heavy bombardment in the accretion disks last for several 100 million years as the heavier dust and new formed planetesimals collide.
Everything I am reading lately says that planet formation comes easy..... but the end result can be stochastic.
Very Cool!
Craig
I was going to post this myself.
Research paper can be found here http://fr.arxiv.org/abs/0711.2111
I plan to read it this evening.
From what the Spitzer dust surveys are observing, it seems that the gas in a forming planetary system is lost within 10 million years, which means gas giants HAVE to form fast. But the heavy bombardment in the accretion disks last for several 100 million years as the heavier dust and new formed planetesimals collide.
Everything I am reading lately says that planet formation comes easy..... but the end result can be stochastic.
Very Cool!
Craig
The indirect evidence seems to be both favorable and increasing rapidly...I'm reminded of the years before the discovery of 51 Pegasi b (your namesake!) 
Right with ya, Nprev 
(my namesake is has a dual derivation: from 51Pegb and the 1st expedition to Altair 4)
Amazing progress in the last dozen years.....
Spitzer has been a work horse.
This is the link to the Spitzer FEPS team site.
Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems:
"We plan to trace the evolution of planetary systems at all ages ranging from: (1) 3-10 Myr when stellar accretion from the disk terminates; to (2) 10-100 Myr when planets achieve their final masses via coalescence of solids and accretion of remnant molecular gas; to (3) 100-1000 Myr when the final architecture of solar systems takes form and frequent collisions between remnant planetesimals produce copious quantities of dust; and finally to (4) mature systems of age comparable to the Sun in which planet-driven activity of planetesimals continues to generate detectable dust. Our strategy is to use carefully calibrated spectral energy distributions and high-resolution spectra to infer the radial distribution of dust and the molecular hydrogen content of disks surrounding a sample of 300 solar-like stars distributed uniformly in log-age over 3 Myr to 3 Gyr."
Latest published reviews are "The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Placing Our Solar System in Context with Spitzer" Meyer, M. R. and the entire FEPS team 2007, PASP, 118, 1690 (which I cannot acccess) but found a link to this paper
which may be the same http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0701/0701058v1.pdf
and "Evolution of Circumstellar Disks Around Normal Stars: Placing Our Solar System in Context"
Meyer, M. R., et al. 2007, Protostars and Planets V http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606399
I know this forum is not meant to be a library, but this stuff is definitely related to our pusuit of planets, Sol located and elsewhere. And these systems will be future targets ....... for loooooooonnnnnnngggggggggggg duration unmanned probes, perhaps
Craig
(my namesake is has a dual derivation: from 51Pegb and the 1st expedition to Altair 4)Amazing progress in the last dozen years.....
Spitzer has been a work horse.
This is the link to the Spitzer FEPS team site.
Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems:
"We plan to trace the evolution of planetary systems at all ages ranging from: (1) 3-10 Myr when stellar accretion from the disk terminates; to (2) 10-100 Myr when planets achieve their final masses via coalescence of solids and accretion of remnant molecular gas; to (3) 100-1000 Myr when the final architecture of solar systems takes form and frequent collisions between remnant planetesimals produce copious quantities of dust; and finally to (4) mature systems of age comparable to the Sun in which planet-driven activity of planetesimals continues to generate detectable dust. Our strategy is to use carefully calibrated spectral energy distributions and high-resolution spectra to infer the radial distribution of dust and the molecular hydrogen content of disks surrounding a sample of 300 solar-like stars distributed uniformly in log-age over 3 Myr to 3 Gyr."
Latest published reviews are "The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Placing Our Solar System in Context with Spitzer" Meyer, M. R. and the entire FEPS team 2007, PASP, 118, 1690 (which I cannot acccess) but found a link to this paper
which may be the same http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0701/0701058v1.pdf
and "Evolution of Circumstellar Disks Around Normal Stars: Placing Our Solar System in Context"
Meyer, M. R., et al. 2007, Protostars and Planets V http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606399
I know this forum is not meant to be a library, but this stuff is definitely related to our pusuit of planets, Sol located and elsewhere. And these systems will be future targets ....... for loooooooonnnnnnngggggggggggg duration unmanned probes, perhaps
Craig
Speaking of young planetary systems and Spitzer:
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...8/release.shtml
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...8/release.shtml
QUOTE
Gorlova and her colleagues looked for the dusty signs of similar smash-ups around 400 stars that are all about 30 million years old - roughly the age of our sun when Earth's moon formed. They found that only 1 out of the 400 stars is immersed in the telltale dust. Taking into consideration the amount of time the dust should stick around, and the age range at which moon-forming collisions can occur, the scientists then calculated the probability of a solar system making a moon like Earth's to be at most 5 to 10 percent.
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