Astronomers discovered large discs of dust around two nearby red dwarf stars

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LONDON: Astronomers have discovered large discs of dust around two nearby red dwarf stars that could point to the birth of a new solar system.
The discovery, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society challenges existing ideas about how planets are formed.
“We found two red dwarf stars with discs of orbiting gas and dust around them where planets could be forming at the moment,” said the study’s lead author, Dr Simon Murphy of the Australian National University.
“We think the Earth and all the other planets formed from discs just like these, so it is fascinating to see a potential new solar system evolving.”
Astronomers believe planets are usually formed during the first few million years of a newborn star’s life, before the star’s stellar wind blows away all the gas and dust needed to make planets.
“These stars are about 16 million years old, so by this age we don’t expect to have any of these really strong booming discs to be left,” Dr Murphy said.
“The fact that we found two of them quite by accident was very surprising.”