Death stars in Orion blast planets before they even form

Death stars in Orion blast planets before they even form

I found this article interesting.

The Orion Nebula, which is a "stellar nursery" that is home to hundreds of proto solar systems -- dense clouds of dust and gas that are in the process of forming into new stars and new planets, some potentially similar to our solar system -- also has nearby massive "O-type" stars whose blasts of emitted radiation is thought to be blowing away some of these dust clouds before they can fully form into stars and planets.


Excerpt:

Young stars in the Orion Nebula get their potential planet-forming dust and gas blasted away if they’re near enough to ‘death stars’ – massive O-type stars that emit fierce ultraviolet radiation.

A team of astronomers from Canada and the United States has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the often deadly relationship between highly luminous O-type stars and nearby protostars in the Orion Nebula. Their data reveal that protostars within 0.1 light-years (about 600 billion miles) of an O-type star are doomed to have their cocoons of dust and gas stripped away in just a few millions years, much faster than planets are able to form.

Link to article:
Death stars in Orion blast planets before they even form

By the way, as I mentioned above, the Orion Nebula is home to hundreds of these "protoplanetary disks" of gas and dust that are basically embryonic solar systems. The Hubble telescope has managed to photograph a few of these, such as this one, which may be something similar to what our solar system may have looked like 5 billion years ago:


Image Source:
Hubblesite.org

Very interesting find, thanks for sharing.

"Their data reveal that protostars within 0.1 light-years (about 600 billion miles) of an O-type star are doomed to have their cocoons of dust and gas stripped away in just a few millions years, much faster than planets are able to form."

Chilling.

reply to post by Bybyots


Thanks, I have been searching for that movie for over 10 years. Has been driving me crazy all this time. As soon as I saw the pic I knew it was it. Now I have a name to it. Thanks again.

To be frank, 0.1 light-years (about 600 billion miles) from an O-type star is extremely close no matter how you look at it. If there were one at that distance from the Sun, it would fall within the Oort cloud, and blast us with harmful radiation.

I'm a pro lifer and think we should put an end to aborted stars.