Star sacrifices 2,000 comets a DAY to cloak twin planets in dust

Astroboffins using a new multinational observatory have spotted evidence of two planets orbiting nearby star Fomalhaut – which is just 25 light years away and cloaked in a comet graveyard. The dust ring around Fomalhaut The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a joint project between Europe, the US, East Asia …

[Scott Broukell]

Planetary melting pot opens up new market opportunity

So with all this water (ice) drifting around the two planet system, presumably all it will take is for enough to make touch down and liquify on either or both of the planets, then the arrival of some amino acid building block chemistry (unless those materials are already captured within the comet debris), and hey presto! - a new customer base, ready and waiting in 2 billion years or so!

I say we all 'friend' them now on FB and give them ID cards and banking/credit facilities - what, too soon ? But think of the sales advantages and profit leverage. Only 12 light years distant, surely we should start making contact with leafleting at the very least, that's a cheap, cost effective and easy way to reach out to new customers.

Dear Mr / Mrs green/blue algal Blob, did you know you could now get up to 30GB Wi-Fi broadbland and free unlimited weekend calls, (wait - what's their orbital interval, a weekend could be something like 1 Terra-month long!, better give that one some more thought).

[Christoph]

Re: Planetary melting pot opens up new market opportunity

And have they thought about accepting Blxplrght as their personal saviour?

[hplasm]

A bit too chilly

for Integral Trees.

Pity.

[Wombling_Free]

Re: A bit too chilly

Not if they are Intergral Trees with a liquid methane / ammonia metabolism, or something equally exotic.

Try some Robert L Forward for some exotic metabolisms - neutron star matter!

Robert L Forward worked out the parameters of the Smoke Ring for Larry Niven, by the way. The physics actually does work - a Smoke Ring is truly possible; we should be looking for them - Neptune size planets in close orbit around ancient neutron stars should be pretty common by all accounts, especially on globular clusters.

[Anonymous Coward]

Space AND science

Really BIG and really interesting...

[Bill Neal]

"two planets, one closer to the star and one more distant."

Well, is that not typically the case?

[Ru]

Re: "two planets, one closer to the star and one more distant."

Well, probably. But there's always the possibility that they're in the same orbit, at each other's L3 point, sorta thing. Or they might have crazy eccentric orbits, or maybe orbits that might not even share the same orbital plane.

[LaeMing]

Re: "two planets, one closer to the star and one more distant."

I assume what was meant was 'one closer and one further relative to the commetary cloud'

[Bwian]

So they found Krikkit then?

[Javc]

I see the planets

>> The planets' relatively small size explains why infrared observations couldn't pick them up.

I see the outer one at about 8:00 on the ring and the inner one at 5:00.