49 Ceti System

Exoplanetary Scratchpad [SysBP Img]

An ancient star (40 MYO) surrounded by a young looking vast amount of dust. It is surrounded by a tremendous amount of gas which would usually disappear by 10 Million Years of age. This is thought to be rejuvenated by the collisions of comets, about one every six seconds for the past 10 Million Years. The belt is about as large as the Kuiper Belt, but is 4,000 times more massive. The comets contain more carbon monoxide than comets in our solar system, which is released when they collide. Direct evidence of a comet was discovered in 2013 along with 6 other systems, bringing the total number of known exocomets to 10.

49 Ceti System In the News

Cometary Collisions (Nov 2012)

• http://www.space.com/18421-comet-collisions-explain-star-mystery.html

New Exocomet Discovered (Jan 2013)

• http://www.space.com/19156-exocomets-alien-solar-systems.html
• http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/01/07/exocomets-may-be-as-common-as-exoplanets/

Mentioned in Article As Not Having Much Gas (Jul 2013)

See also Fomalhaut System, TW Hydrae System, 49 Ceti System, HD 21997 System

• http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-study-shows-disks-dont-need-planets-to-make-patterns/#.UeCAXFPOlll

See Also

• Aliases: HD 9672 System
• Exocomets