AN elderly star in the constellation Monoceros may be giving birth to
planets.
Planets normally form from gas and dust around a new-born star. But the
Monoceros star may be making planets late in life, as it shrinks from a red
giant to a white dwarf. The star has ejected its outer atmosphere. This material
would normally dissipate into space, but because the star has a companion star,
the material is trapped.
“Part of this material is not able to escape, but is stored in a disc around
the whole binary system,” says Rens Waters of the University of Amsterdam. His
team reports in Nature (vol 391, p 868) that the disc contains
pebble-sized silicate grains, the raw material of planets, and looks like the
planet-forming discs around young stars.
