poly: Mysterious Dust Clump

If we ever do discover aliens out there, my bet for how it
happens is that an observation like the following keeps
resisting attempts at ordinary explanations.

>Summary by SCIENCE-WEEK <http://scienceweek.com> 25Sep98
>
>
>2. A MYSTERIOUS DUST CLUMP IN A BINARY STAR SYSTEM DISK
>... an evolved star (probably
>evolving into a *white dwarf) that is part of the binary system
>that has expelled the gas and dust that constitute what is called
>the Red Rectangle nebula. ... ... M. Jura and J. Turner now
>report *high-angular-resolution observations at *millimeter and
>submillimeter wavelengths of the dust disk associated with the
>Red Rectangle. The authors report evidence for a dust clump with
>an estimated mass near that of Jupiter in the outer regions of
>the disk. The clump is larger than our Solar System, and is far
>beyond where planet formation would normally be expected, which
>leads the authors to suggest the nature and fate of the apparent
>clump are a mystery.
>-----------
>M. Jura and J. Turner (University of California Los Angeles, US):
>A mysterious dust clump in a disk around an evolved binary star
>system.
>(Nature 10 Sep 98 395:144)
>QY: M. Jura <jura@clotho.astro.ucla.edu>
>
>

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-8614
Received on Tue Oct 6 21:30:00 1998