News: US astronomers discover inter-planetary collision.

US astronomers discover inter-planetary collision

AFP - Wednesday, September 24 12:23 am

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080923/tsc-us-astronomy-e123fef.html

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Two planets about 300 light years from Earth
slammed into each other recently, US astronomers said Tuesday, the
first time evidence of such a catastrophic collision has been seen by
scientists.

Astronomers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and
the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) said the crash
involved two planets orbiting a star in the Aries constellation.

The collision was uncovered while astronomers were attempting to
measure the star's age, and found an unusually large amount of dust
orbiting the star.

"It's as if Earth and Venus collided with each other," said Benjamin
Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy.

"Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently,
major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature
planetary system."

The astronomers' research will be published in the December issue of
Astrophysical Journal. The collision was an "ultimate extinction
event" that would have wiped out any life on either planet in minutes,
the report said.

The prospect of Earth suffering an apocalyptic collision with another
planet or asteroid has been fodder for science-fiction writers and
film-makers ever since Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's 1933 novel
"When Worlds Collide."

Astronomers said however the odds of such collisions occurring
remained low.

Tennessee State University astronomer Gregory Henry said scientists in
the United States and France have long studied the stability of
planetary orbits.

"Their computer models predict planetary motions into the distant
future and they find a small probability for collisions of Mercury
with Earth or Venus sometime in the next billion years or more," Henry
said.

Zuckerman noted, however, that collisions have occurred in our solar
system's past. "Many astronomers believe our moon was formed from the
grazing collision of two planetary embryos, the young Earth and a body
about the size of Mars, a crash that created tremendous debris, some
of which condensed to form the moon and some of which went into orbit
around the young sun," he said.

--
Bob.

.

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