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ISO satellite investigates dust discs around stars
October 31, 1996investigate the dust discs around normal stars. Those few stars which are surrounded by clouds of dust (our own Sun is surrounded by a dust cloud) would form a list of stars which might have orbiting planets - some of which may support life. These stars would be among the first to be investigated by future space missions searching for signs of life.
Dr Helen Walker of CLRC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory presented the latest images of the dust cloud round a star called Vega at a seminar on Thursday 31 October which was hosted by the Science and Technology Minister Ian Taylor, MBE, MP. '¬Although these images may not appear to be all that inspiring at first glance, it is really exciting to realise that this is the first time we have seen (in the infrared) the vast dust cloud round a neighbouring star,'® commented Dr Walker.
The maps of Vega at two infrared wavelengths shows how well ISO can determine the size of these dust clouds. The star alone would only be as big as the central (whitish) part of the feature, the outer (orange) parts reveal the feature is larger than the star alone. The dust disc around Vega could be as large as 900 Astronomical Units across (the Earth is 1 Astronomical Unit from the Sun). This is about the same size as that of the dust disc round our Solar System, which extends as far as the cold cloud at the outer edge, from which comets may come. The ISO photometer has shown that it is possible to resolve these dust discs around nearby (within 50 light years), normal stars.
ISO can also investigate the composition of the dust. Early results have shown that some dust discs are dominated by silicate dust (small grains of sand), whilst others show the signature of complex organic molecules. This shows that conditions in the discs around other stars may be similar to conditions in our own Solar System, either now or at earlier times.
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC)
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