At about 450 light years from Earth, towards the southern constellation of Centaurus, there is a solar-type star with a name similar to a taxpayer number: TYC 8241 2652 1. Since 1983, thanks to observations from NASA's IRAS infrared satellite, we knew that a warm disk of dust was orbiting around the ten million years old star: a kind of space coat, able to transform into infrared radiation, i.e. heat, the light received from the young star.
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| Artist's conceptualization of the dusty TYC 8241 2652 system as it might have appeared several years ago when it was emitting large amounts of excess infrared radiation. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA artwork by Lynette Cook |
