http://www.keckobservatory.org/news/science/060109_orion/index.html

WASHINGTON, D. C. (January 9, 2006) New observations of the Orion Nebula at infrared wavelengths reveal that small dust grains located in disks around young stars are growing, taking the initial steps toward forming planets despite bathing in a flood of radiation from highly luminous stars. The properties of dust in disks around young stars plays a pivotal role in understanding star formation and determining the origins of planets in our Solar system and in extrasolar planetary systems as well. The results are presented today at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D. C.

“One of the key questions we are trying to address is whether or not planets can form around young stars in the seemingly hostile environment of the Orion Nebula,” said Dr. Marc Kassis, support astronomer at the W. M. Keck Observatory and lead author of the poster sharing the results.

The Orion Nebula, located about 1500 light years away, is an energetic stellar nursery giving birth to thousands of young, Sun-like stars with protoplanetary disks. But a few of these newborn stars are 10 to 30 times the mass of our Sun and 10,000 times as bright. These massive stars bathe the entire region in harsh ultraviolet radiation which evaporates the protoplanetary disks of their lower mass neighbors.

“You would think that the strong ultraviolet radiation that is evaporating these disks would also inhibit planet formation, but the larger particles we see in these Orion disks seem to suggest otherwise,” said team member Dr. Nathan Smith, Hubble Fellow at the University of Colorado.

To determine the relative sizes of the grains in these protoplanetary disks, the research team used the Long Wavelength Spectrometer on the Keck I 10-meter telescope and the Mid-Infrared Spectrometer and Imager at the 3-meter NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, both situated 14,000 feet atop Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai`i.
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The birth of a solar system- feel like arguing politics now?