Baby star found on Earth’s doorstep
SEP 08, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025562
Science : A young star has been found 27 light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba. Stars are born when clouds of dust and gas collapse inward and contract; they begin to shine when they grow hot enough. At the “pre-main-sequence” stage they’re powered by gravity, not nuclear activity. AP Columbae is still in this early stage; it has high lithium levels, unlike a mature star, like our Sun, whose nuclear reactions have destroyed almost all its lithium. Any planets the star possesses will be young enough to still emit detectable near-IR light, and they might show what our solar system looked like at a similar stage.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
