This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the nasty effects of
living near a group of massive stars: radiation and winds from the massive
stars (white spot in center) are blasting planet-making material away from
stars like our sun. The planetary material can be seen as comet-like tails
behind three stars near the center of the picture. The tails are pointing
away from the massive stellar furnaces that are blowing them outward.
The picture is the best example yet of multiple sun-like stars being
stripped of their planet-making dust by massive stars.
The sun-like stars are about two to three million years old, an age when
planets are thought to be growing out of surrounding disks of dust and
gas. Astronomers say the dust being blown from the stars is from their
outer disks. This means that any Earth-like planets forming around the
sun-like stars would be safe, while outer planets like Uranus might be
nothing more than dust in the wind.
This image shows a portion of the W5 star-forming region, located 6,500
light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is a composite of
infrared data from Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging
photometer. Light with a wavelength of 3.5 microns is blue, while light
from the dust of 24 microns is orange-red.