By Ron Cowen
From Austin, Texas, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Debris disks surrounding stars are signposts that planet formation has already begun. The material in such disks is continually replenished as asteroids or other rocky debris—leftovers from the planet-making process—collides and produces fresh dust. Most debris disks are uniformly distributed around their star.
Not so the disk surrounding the star HD 61005. As observed with a near-infrared camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, part of the disk appears to be swept back behind the star.