被以为已经过了能够形成行星的年龄的恒星，实际上可能正在创造新的行星。

被以为已经过了能够形成行星的年龄的恒星，实际上可能正在创造新的行星。围绕着人称长蛇座TW（TW Hydrae）这颗惊人恒星的星盘物质，可能巨大得足以形成甚至比我们太阳系的行星数量还多的行星。

这些发现是通过欧洲航天局（European Space Agency）的赫歇尔天文台（Herschel Space Observatory）获得的。

长蛇座TW星龄大约为1000万岁，相对而言还算年轻，但在理论上，这颗恒星已经过了可能形成巨型行星的年纪。

密歇根大学安阿伯分校（University of Michigan in Ann Arbor）的埃德温·伯金（Edwin Bergin）说：“我们没想到会看到这颗恒星周围有那么多气体。”伯金领导了这项发表在《自然》（Nature）上的新研究。他说：“通常，这个年龄段的恒星周围的物质已消失殆尽，但这颗恒星仍有足够巨大的物质，可形成相当于50个木星的行星。”

这张艺术展示图通过将长蛇座TW的星盘和50个木星放在天平的两端说明了上述概念。

有关长蛇座TW研究的详细信息，包括更为精确地衡量形成行星的星盘重量的新方法请查阅美国航空航天局（NASA）新闻简报。

A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may, in fact, be creating new worlds.

A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may, in fact, be creating new worlds. The disk of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae may be massive enough to make even more planets than we have in our own solar system.

The findings were made using the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.

At roughly 10 million years old, TW Hydrae is relatively young but, in theory, it is past the age at which giant planets may have formed.

“We didn’t expect to see so much gas around this star,” said Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Bergin led the new study appearing in the journal Nature. “Typically stars of this age have cleared out their surrounding material, but this star still has enough mass to make the equivalent of 50 Jupiters,” Bergin said.

This artist’s illustration demonstrates the concept, balancing the TW Hydrae planetary disk against 50 copies of Jupiter.

For more on the research into TW Hydrae — including a new, more precise method for weighing planet-forming disks — see the NASA press release.