Astrobiology Magazine - Nov. 18, 2007
Astronomers have found evidence for the formation of young rocky planets around the star HD 23514 located in the well-known Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster that is easily visible in the current evening sky. Most of the extrasolar planets that have been discovered so far are gas giants similar to Jupiter, but researchers are continuing to search for smaller rocky planets. Terrestrial planets around distant stars are of utmost interest to astrobiologists because they are more likely to support habitats for life as we know it.
Using an infrared sensitive camera (MICHELLE) on the Gemini North Telescope, Joseph Rhee of UCLA and his collaborators have measured heat from hot dust surrounding a 100 million year old star in the bright star cluster. The star has properties very much like our Sun except that it is 45 times younger and is orbited by hundreds of thousands of times more dust than our Sun. The star is also one of the very few solar-type stars known to be orbited by warm dust particles.
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