Asteroid Alley - Tau Ceti

Tau Ceti: The Going Gets Tough for Life

Tau Ceti, only 12 light years away, is the nearest sun-like star and is easily visible without a telescope.

It is the first star to be found to have a disk of dust and comets around it similar in size and shape to the disk of comets and asteroids that orbits the Sun.

But the similarity ends there.

Tau Ceti has more than ten times the number of comets and asteroids that there are in our Solar System.

It's unlikely planets orbit in Tau Ceti, but if there are, it is likely that they will experience constant bombardment from asteroids of the kind that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs.

It is likely that with so many large impacts life would not have the opportunity to evolve.

source from SpaceRef



Image of the disc of dust particles around the star Tau Ceti, taken with the submillimetre-wavelength camera SCUBA.

moral if this story: scientists are going to have to rethink where they look for civilizations outside our Solar System.

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nice find!

you never know though, about life. it's one of the most tenacious things if you ask me. even here on earth life has been found where none was thought to be able to exist. not to mention that comets contain amino acids, so possibly some sort of singlecelled organisms could exist on them.

It amazes me how scientists can get so much data from a red shift/doppler effect diagram and pictures like that one! All I see is a booger in infrared!