Chile telescope discovers ‘comet factory’

[Judi Lynn]

Chile telescope discovers ‘comet factory’
2013-06-07 14:00


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(European Southern Observatory, AFP)[/font]

Santiago – A “dust trap” surrounding a young star could help explain how planets are formed, astronomers with Chile's Alma space observatory said on Thursday.

The findings provide insight into how dust particles in the disk around a young star grow in size so that, over time, they form comets and planets.

“It's likely that we are looking at a kind of comet factory,” said Nienke van der Marel, a doctoral student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who led the team of researchers.

Van der Marel and her co-workers made their discovery when they used the Alma observatory to study the disc in a system called Oph-IRS 48.

More:
http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Chile-telescope-discovers-comet-factory-20130607

[longship]

1. Note: Pic is likely NOT from ALMA.

Pic looks like from a visible light telescope. ALMA is a radio telescope. I don't know why the news media does this, but it certainly isn't getting the science right.

R&K for the story, though.

[Wounded Bear]

2. A lot of the astronomy pics we get are like that....

Actually taken in IR, or radio spectrums, and converted to something the human eye can see. I might almost say most of them.

You're right, the source should point out when the photos they display are conversions from a spectrum other than visible light, but it is so ubiquitous, I guess they just get tired of including the disclaimer.