Astronomers Say Alien Dust Is Nothing To Sneeze At

Mid-infrared spectroscopy of a sample of stars known to host warm dust in their terrestrial planet zones. The three spectra at the top of the plot illustrate the features of olivine and pyroxene dust species whereas the bottom three spectra illustrate the features of silica dust species. These species of dust are commonly found in comets and asteroids in our own Solar System. The red middle curve shows the Gemini-South T-ReCS spectrum of HD 131488 which exhibits a dust spectral feature that is significantly different from the others shown. Comparison spectra were taken from the Spitzer-IRS archive.