NASA's Spitzer Uncovers Hints of Mega Solar Systems

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has identified two huge "hypergiant" stars circled by monstrous disks of what might be planet-forming dust. The findings surprised astronomers because stars as big as these were thought to be inhospitable to planets.

"These extremely massive stars are tremendously hot and bright and have very strong winds, making the job of building planets difficult," said Joel Kastner of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. "Our data suggest that the planet-forming process may be hardier than previously believed, occurring around even the most massive stars that nature produces."

Kastner is first author of a paper describing the research in the Feb. 10 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Dusty disks around stars are thought to be signposts for present or future planetary systems. Our own sun is orbited by a thin disk of planetary debris, called the Kuiper Belt, which includes dust, comets and larger bodies similar to Pluto.

Last year, astronomers using Spitzer reported finding a dust disk around a miniature star, or brown dwarf, with only eight one-thousandths the mass of the sun (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/happenings/20051129/). Disks have also been spotted before around stars five times more massive than the sun.

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An artist concept of a hypergiant and its disk, plus additional graphics and information, are available at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer .

For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home/ .