Your upperplace for Free

Rain crystals in clouds around stars in training

NASA's Spitzer telescope has spotted small green crystals of mineral called olivine, which are falling onto the surface of stars in the making. It is the first time that such crystals have been observed in clouds of dust and gas around stars gathered in formation.

Astronomers still do not know exactly how they ajus crystals there, but most likely are jets of gas coming from the star cast, informs NASA.

"It requires temperatures as hot as lava to form the crystals, " said Tom Megeath, senior researcher at the University of Toledo, Ohio.

"We assume that these crystals have reached very high temperatures near the surface of the star in the making, then they were thrown into the surrounding cloud, where temperatures are much colder, eventually falling back like a shower of crystals, " explains Tom Megeath .

Spitzer Telescope spotted the rain of crystals around a distant star, a protostar, called HOPS-68, in the constellation Orion.

The crystals belong to the family olivinelor (silicate minerals) and can be found anywhere in the universe, including Earth's beaches and all precious stones. NASA's Stardust and Deep Impact missions were detected in such crystals themselves while studying comets.

According to Charles Poteet, lead author of the study, from the University of Toledo, the gas within these clouds around protostelelor everything is very dark, but these tiny crystals could ignite any light is present, resulting in a green sparkle background black, dusty.

The discovery of crystals in a cloud around a protostar is surprising because the colder temperatures of the cloud. This led to the conclusion that the jets of material expelled these crystals were transported outside the cold cloud.

Comments and Share this with your friends or bookmark this website ...you have a lot of options to remember this site in seconds.