Starship Asterisk*

At http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28680, you can read this:

This age is crucial since most low-mass stars retain gas disks and are held to form planets at an age around 3 million years young.

Are held to? I googled this expression, or more precisely, I googled "to be held to do something". I got four results! The best result asked me to translate it! Check this out. The "to be held to do something" sentence goes like this:

To be held to do something because of a moral tie

Well, the word the work sheet wants me to fill in is obviously "obligated" - check out the list of words that I'm asked to choose from the work sheet - but it doesn't help me understand the use of the word in the quote at top. Are low-mass stars obligated to form planets at around 3 million years young?

Or does it mean that they hold on to their disks so that they will be able to form planets? I can see the young stars scratching their photospheres and thinking, Okay, now I've held on to my dust disk long enough, now I'd better start making planets?

(By the way, now that I'm at it, what is a "moral tie"? The match ended 1-1, so it was a tie? The competition showed us to be equally moral, so it was a moral tie? Or does it mean tie as in "bond"?There was a bond between us, so I had to do it? The star is bonded to its disk, so it has to turn it into planets?)

Ann

Current theory is that young stars start forming planets at about 3 million years.

That's the way I read it.

Ann wrote:At http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28680, you can read this:

This age is crucial since most low-mass stars retain gas disks and are held to form planets at an age around 3 million years young.

"Are held to" = "are believed to". This comes from something along the lines of "scientists hold to the opinion that..."

Thanks, Chris! Finally it makes sense!

Ann

Ann wrote:Thanks, Chris! Finally it makes sense!

Ann

Glad it makes sense, Ann, because if it made cents, you would just get weighed down.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had made cents... better yet if it had made dollars!

Ann