The "O" Face of Planetary AbortionSupermassive, intensely energetic stars 100 times the mass of Sol essentially rip apart the disc of matter surrounding neighboring stars, potentially destroying a star's capacity to form planets. The process, photoevaporation, essentially turns the particles in the disc into mini-comets, wearing them away with their stellar "wind" of energy and particles. Simultaneously, a similar bit of work is being done to the smaller star as it's own "wind" is being blown away by it's aggressive neighbor.
This is all information being added to the ongoing, constantly under revision, estimate of the number of extra-solar planets in our galaxy. (And, I suppose, the universe, depending upon how typical we think the goings-on in our galaxy are.)
This is another of those possible indications that planets are more likely to form out in relatively low density portions of a galaxy (such as where we are) and is one factor in favor of expecting fewer planetary systems the closer to the densely-populated (by stars) center of a galaxy.
(Discoveries of this sort often bring some people to remark how this is somehow another sign of a guiding and benevolent intelligence. That used to make me a little angry but now only elicits a sigh. If various conditions weren't present to allow the formation of planets, then there wouldn't be anyone here to marvel at how fortunate they are that things are where they are. One may as well marvel at how lifeless, empty and/or chaotic the majority of the universe is and wonder at how many clumsy thumbs The Creator must have. Certainly, believe what you will, but keep it a matter of faith.)
These observations are due to equipment aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, btw.
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Comments
I hope we can eventually get our act together, and become a space-faring species. -- grey_zealot
I'm saddened by how much time we've lost since the early '70s. If the pace of the space race had remained almost constant from the end of the '50s through to today, we'd have not only at least one orbiting, expanding city but we'd have at least one sprawling base/city on the Moon, likely with deep Solar System exploration -- and much of the space program in general -- operating from there. It would be so much easier to send probes and launch missions from a Moon base. Who knows? By this point we might even have had a toehold on Mars.