"Paul Ciszek"  wrote in message
news:cev3s1$17ec$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
>
> In article ,
> Maurice Barnhill   wrote:
> >I wouldn't give up yet.  Current planet-searches are not as
> >sensitive to planetary systems like ours as they are to "hot
> >Jupiters."  The conclusion that there are two different
> >mechanisms for producing planetary systems is reasonable, but if
> >so the results of current searches for planets do not necessarily
> >imply that the number of systems like ours is small, only that
> >systems like ours are hard to observe.
>
> Disks of crud have been seen around some young stars; such a
> situation probably led to the formation of our solar system.
> Once the crud has accreted into planets, their presence would
> be hard to detect.  So, if someone could prove that disks of
> crud were the rule rather than the exception early in stellar
> evolution, and that very few stars have disks of crud later,
> that would be significant.
>
I'm not sure that would help.  We still wouldn't know whether the
typical fate of a disk is to turn into a "hot Jupiter" system,
or a sol-like system, or something else entirely.  What we need
is a "telescope" with high enough resolution to actually "see"
planets the size of Earth at a distance of 1000 ly.  NASA has
such a system on the drawing boards, but it is at least 10 years
off, even if it were to get funding.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 8/6/04 5:39:21 PM