07-05-2017, 04:13 PM
"Re-making planets after star-death"
"Astronomers Dr Jane Greaves, of the University of Cardiff, and Dr Wayne Holland, of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, may have found an answer to the 25-year-old mystery of how planets form in the aftermath of a supernova explosion. The two researchers will present their work on Thursday 6 July at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull, and in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society."
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-re-making-...death.html
Basically, a supernova should clear out the immediate environment of any material plus destroy any existing planets, but it seems to be possible for planets to reform later on. The mechanism is probably the remaining neutron star (or pulsar) re-collecting enough material from the interstellar medium to form new planets. They used the JCMT on MK to make the observations with SCUBA and SCUBA-2; Wayne being the project scientist for both instruments.
It was nice to see this story. I've known Jane and Wayne for a couple of decades and they are both good friends. In particular, Wayne and I used to be the opposing captains in the annual UKIRT vs JCMT soccer match!
"Astronomers Dr Jane Greaves, of the University of Cardiff, and Dr Wayne Holland, of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, may have found an answer to the 25-year-old mystery of how planets form in the aftermath of a supernova explosion. The two researchers will present their work on Thursday 6 July at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull, and in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society."
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-re-making-...death.html
Basically, a supernova should clear out the immediate environment of any material plus destroy any existing planets, but it seems to be possible for planets to reform later on. The mechanism is probably the remaining neutron star (or pulsar) re-collecting enough material from the interstellar medium to form new planets. They used the JCMT on MK to make the observations with SCUBA and SCUBA-2; Wayne being the project scientist for both instruments.
It was nice to see this story. I've known Jane and Wayne for a couple of decades and they are both good friends. In particular, Wayne and I used to be the opposing captains in the annual UKIRT vs JCMT soccer match!