FOR the first time, astronomers have detected a belt of asteroids in another
solar system. The alien belt may contain 200 times as much mass as our own Solar
System’s asteroid belt.
The asteroids circle a luminous young star known as Zeta Leporis some 60
light years from Earth in a constellation known as the Hare. Christine Chen and
Michael Jura of the University of California in Los Angeles used the 10-metre
Keck telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to detect the feeble infrared radiation
emitted by microscopic dust particles lying in a band that spreads …