Posted: Tue, Jun 5, 2001, 6:07 PM ET (2207 GMT)
Astronomers announced Monday that they had found evidence of an asteroid belt forming around another star. UCLA astronomers Michael Jung and Christine Chen said that new detailed measurements of a dust disk already known to exist around the star Zeta Leporis, taken by an infrared camera on one of the 10-meter Keck Observatory telescopes, shows the disk is no more than 1.8 billion km across, and has an average temperature that would be consistent with the existence of asteroids. If true, it would be the first asteroid belt discovered around another star. The astronomers plans follow-up observations to determine the composition of the putative belt and compare it to the composition of asteroids in our own solar system.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  UCLA press release