New Observations Show that the Pleiades May be Harboring Earthlike Planets

[n2doc]

Posted by Josh Hill
Rocky terrestrial planets, perhaps like Earth, or Venus, appear to be forming or to have recently formed around a star in the Pleiades star cluster, according to astronomers using the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The planets appear to be the result of "monster collisions" of planets or planetary embryos.

The Pleiades is the name of an open cluster in the constellation of Taurus dominated by hot blue stars, which have formed within the last 100 million years. It is among the nearest to the Earth of all open clusters, probably the best known and certainly the most obvious to the naked eye.

The Pleiades have been considered important by many cultures throughout history. In Bronze Age Europe, the Celts and others associated the Pleiades with mourning and funerals because the cluster rose in the eastern night sky between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, which was a festival devoted to the remembrance of the dead. The ancient Aztecs of Mexico and Central America based their calendar on the Pleiades.

Two astronomers, using the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and the Spitzer Space Telescope, have found evidence of past and possibly future rocky planets, alike to our own first four planets. One of the clusters stars - HD 23514 – has been found to be surrounded by a large amount of hot dust particles.
more:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/01/are-the-pleiade.html

[Deja Q]

1. So much for Mazatlan. Next year, the board meeting will be held at HD23514

And is the telescope named after Elliot Spitzer?

:hide:

[Trajan]

2. Ahh ... That has always been a Big Question Mark .....

Badat-Boom ....

On a more serious note: Here are some pics I found ....

The 'Question Mark' :




Here is an artist's rendering from last September (From a story then - http://www.spacescan.org/ ):

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. We will treat any constellation harboring earthlike planets

just like the earthlike planets themselves. We will draw no distinction... we are putting these constellations on notice... Oh how I wish I could have loaded shrubs teleprompter once in awhile.