Space shock waves may help create planets

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Data from the U.S. space agency's Spitzer Space Telescope suggests shock waves around dusty, young stars might be creating raw materials for planets.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the evidence comes in the form of tiny crystals called cristobalite and tridymite that are known to reside in comets, in volcanic lava flows on Earth and in some meteorites that land on Earth.

Astronomers already knew crystallized dust grains stick together to form larger particles, which later lump together to form planets. But what they found surprising about the discovery is that those particular crystals require flash heating events, such as shock waves, to form.

NASA said the finding suggests the same kinds of shock waves that cause sonic booms from jets are responsible for creating the stuff of planets throughout the universe.

"By studying these other star systems, we can learn about the very beginnings of our own planets 4.6 billion years ago," said William Forrest of the University of Rochester. "Spitzer has given us a better idea of how the raw materials of planets are produced very early on."

Forrest, graduate student Ben Sargent and colleagues from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Missouri, the University of Rochester and Cornell University, report their research in the Astrophysical Journal.