Using the Gran Telescopio Canarias in La Palma, the scientists studied a
debris disc orbiting a white dwarf 410 light years away, formed by the disruption of rocky bodies composed of elements such as iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen -- the four key building blocks of the Earth and most rocky bodies.
But life there would not be peaceful, as a massive
debris disc around the star, increases the chance of hits from asteroids and comets.
They observed that the planet is not aligned with Beta Pictoris' (its star's) main
debris disc but is aligned to and potentially interacting with an inner warped component disc.
But just last year, British astronomer Jane Greaves and her colleagues discovered an enormous dust-laden
debris disc around Tau Ceti.
Because of the Herschel's sensitive far-infrared capabilities and its rich dataset, astronomers have been able to resolve bright emission around Kappa Coronae Borealis (CrB, or Kappa Cor Bor), indicating the presence of a dusty
debris disc.
Mark Wyatt from the University of Cambridge, lead author of the paper focusing on the
debris disc around 61 Vir.
These models indicate that the mass of the
debris disc around Jupiter, from which the moons formed, was several tens of a per cent of the mass of giant planet; And yet only 2 per cent is enough to make the moons we see today.
The latest insights into the formation and structure of our own 'Mark I' solar system, both planets and other smaller bodies, as well as many types of other planetary systems are to be found in chapters on protoplanetary and
debris discs, terrestrial planets and giant planets.
The
debris discs are remnants of the formation of the planets.
Debris discs are composed of dust resulting from collisions among larger bodies like planetary embryos or asteroids.