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01/21/2006:

"Cal in search for new solar systems: Rings around stars resemble the sun's"

Berkeley astronomers studying two nearby stars in the Milky Way galaxy have discovered rings of frozen rocky debris surrounding them that strikingly resemble the ring of debris around our own solar system known as the Kuiper Belt.

They are now on the hunt for signs that at least one of those stars may be an alien sun with a solar system all its own containing one or more planets where life could develop, according to UC Berkeley research astronomer Paul Kalas.

The still-mysterious Kuiper Belt surrounds our own solar system, and hundreds of thousands of icy objects abide there, along with the many short-period comets that frequently flash across our skies. The newly discovered debris disks might well surround similar solar systems, Kalas and his colleagues say.

On Thursday, the Astrophysical Journal posted an online version of a new report by Kalas and his colleagues, saying observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time revealed details of the exceptionally bright debris disks surrounding two of 22 stars that the Hubble's new Advanced Camera has been surveying.
sfgate.com