Science - Stellar Development

via ScienceDaily.

"Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that gas giants either form within the first 10 million years of a sun-like star's life, or not at all. The study offers new evidence that gas-giant planets must form early in a star's history. The lifespan of sun-like stars is about 10 billion years. "

The study consisted of 15 young stars (undder 30 million years old) using both the Spitzer and the SMT telescope at Mount Graham, AZ to invetigate different regions of the stars orbits and found that the stellar gasses surrounding the stars were almost all depleted, leading to the conclusion that either the stars had already had gas giant class planets form or that these systems would never develop these type of planets. It is also suspected that the stellar gas cloud is important in the development of elliptical orbits for small rocky earth type planets. A highly elliptical orbit would lead to wild temperature swings and inhibit the development of life on such worlds. Most of the systems studied to not appear to have enough gas to assist any such terrestrial planet into an elliptical orbit.