Blame the Ancients

[gridlore]

NASA Spots Possible Asteroid Belt

A NASA telescope has spotted what appears to be an asteroid belt circling a star similar to the sun, a finding that could help astronomers in the hunt for Earth-like planets.

Asteroid belts are littered with remnants of rocky space bodies that sometimes collide with one another, discharging dust. Most asteroids in our solar system orbit in the "asteroid belt" between Jupiter and Mars. If the discovery is confirmed, it would be the first asteroid belt detected around a star similar in age and size to the sun.

Two other distant belts have previously been found, but they circle younger, denser stars.

Scientists peering through NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope observed 85 sun-like stars and found one — HD 69830, located 40 light years away — that appears to have an asteroid belt. The belt is thicker than the asteroid belt in our system and holds 25 times as much material. It is also closer to its star than is the belt in our system.

In Traveller many of the asteroid belts in known space were the result of the Final War that wiped out the Ancients and their civilization some 200,000 years ago. This was written before we fully understood the effect of Jupiter on the accretion disk in the early solar system.

No mater what caused the belt, this is a really cool discovery.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

That *is* cool. Thanks for sharing it. :-)

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Also, great places to go prospecting for remnants of that Alient tech, from what I remember.

[isomeme.livejournal.com]

*wailing siren* *screeching tires* *flashing lights, slamming doors*

"Canon cops! Freeze! The Final War was three hundred thousand years ago! Into the car. You have the right not to post to the TML; should you choose to post, a near-c rock flamer will be appointed to harass yo

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

"Congressman, on the advice of my Line Editor, I'd like to invoke my IMTU rights to cover up any screw-up in my Traveller writings by saying 'well, that's how it is in my universe!'"

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

It's Mycene Belt! I wonder if it's a Feudal Technocracy....