Rocky Finding -- Evidence of Extrasolar Asteroid Belt

Providing the best evidence yet for an asteroid belt beyond the solar system, new measurements pinpoint the location of such a disk of warm dust surrounding the star Zeta Leporis. As the January 6, 2007 issue of Science News reports, this dust lies about the same distance from Zeta Leporis as the solar system’s asteroid belt lies from the sun. Margaret M. Moerchen and Charles M. Telesco and their colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville report these findings in an upcoming Astrophysical Journal Letters.