Image of a star in the constellation Taurus surrounded by a ring of dust.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of STScI
Hubble Images Possible Planet-Forming Systems
News story originally written on February 12, 1999
Scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope to take pictures of stars in
the constellation Taurus. The stars have rings of dust around them.
Scientists think that planets might be forming from the dust. They want
to study these stars to find out how our Solar System
formed.
It's hard to see dust rings like the one in the picture on the left. We
can only see the ones that are edge-on. That way the dust blocks most of
the light from the stars. Otherwise it would too bright to see the dust.
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