How could a dust cloud form around a middle-aged star?
I bring you all to the planet Krikkit, stuck in a star system enshrouded by a large dust cloud which prevents the Krikkiters from seeing the rest of the galaxy - and, by extension, the universe. The planet is a solitary, Earth-like one, orbiting a solitary, Sun-like star.
But the dust cloud wasn't always there. As per Hitchhiker's canon, the dust cloud is the remnants of a large computer, which was subsequently pulverized. It's safe to say that the system was about middle-aged at the time.
That's the work of Douglas Adams. Now my work begins.
Many stars have protoplanetary nebulae - clouds of gas and dust that are the remnants of the giant molecular clouds in which the stars formed. They soon dissipate, although the protoplanetary disk remains. I'm looking for a way to form this sort of gas clouds around a main sequence star, ideally one like the Sun in the present day.
How could a star gain a dust envelope partway through its life?
Some things to be aware of:
- The dust cloud could be the remains of some celestial body, although some calculations in my head tell me that pulling apart a rocky planet would not give you enough dust.
- I'll be lenient, and say that the dust cloud only has to block out 50% of the light reaching the system.
- The star is Sun-like, and about the same age as our Sun in the present day. The planet is Earth-like, but there aren't any sentient species, nor have there ever been.
- The radius of the planet is about 1 AU, with a fairly low orbital eccentricity. The innermost boundary of the dust cloud should be about 1.5 AU.
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