They Should Call It Magrathea

[Tuckerfan]

Planet under construction.

A vast collection of space pebbles surrounding a relatively nearby star is a planetary construction zone, astronomers said today.

The star, TW Hydrae, is young and ripe for developing new worlds.

New observations reveal a swath of pebble-sized material extending at least a billion miles from the star. It’s just the sort of stuff theory says is needed for making comets, asteroids and eventually planets around a young star.

“We’re seeing planet building happening right before our eyes,” David Wilner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Friday. “The foundation has been laid and now the building materials are coming together to make a new solar system.”

Right age

After a star is born, it takes millions of years for a planet to form, astronomers believe. TW Hydrae is about 10 million years old.

Come on, man, do it for the geeks!

[Phnord_Prephect]

Seconded.

[JonScribe]

It’s going to be awhile before they get to the little crinkly bits, isn’t it.

[LeeshaJoy]

Nonono. Magrathea was where they made other planets. This new world should naturally be called Earth Mk II.

[MacTech]

…or Fintlewoodlewix