Planet hunters received some good news recently. A new study concluded that, on average, sun-like stars aren’t all that dusty. Less dust means better odds of snapping clear pictures of the stars’ planets in the future.
These results come from surveying nearly 50 stars from 2008 to 2011 using the Keck Interferometer, a former NASA key science project that combined the power of the twin W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
“Dust is a double-edged sword when it comes to imaging distant planets,” explained Bertrand Mennesson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, lead author of an Astrophysical Journal report to be published online December 8. “The presence of dust is a signpost for planets, but too much dust can block our view.”
Read the full story at SciTechDaily