Planetary Disks

When the Spitzer Space Telescope looks at some stars with its infrared eyes, it will see disks of dust around the star that we can't see with our visible light eyes. These disks could be the beginning of a solar system like ours. When the Earth and the planets in our Solar System were first forming, the Sun probably looked something like the picture at left. The light from the star Beta Pictoris is masked here so we can see the disk of dust surrounding it. Note that the dust disk is seen edge-on. The Spitzer Space Telescope will be able to find many more stars surrounded by disks of dust. These disks are believed to be planetary systems (like our solar system) just beginning to form.

What is the Spitzer Space Telescope? What is the Purpose of the Spitzer Space Telescope? What Will the Spitzer Space Telescope Do? Building the Spitzer Space Telescope