About four years ago, an asteroid belt was found that was very similar to our own. Scientists believe that this belt may reveal planets in the making or the remnants of planets which used to orbit the star. The asteroid belt is located around a star about two times the size of the sun and much younger. This star, Zeta Leporis, is located 60-70 light years away.
The asteroid belt is made up of warm dust particles, particles that are closer to the star. These dust rings are often found on newly formed stars. However, particles like these should spiral into the star within about 20,000 years, but the star is much older than that. This means that the asteroid belt must be the result of some other occurrence like a collision of larger objects.
Astronomers found the temperature of the belt to be about 150 degrees Fahrenheit with a net mass of 1,000 times that of the Sun's asteroid belt. Additionally, the debris in the belt range from 2.5 to 12.2 Astronomical Units from the star. As you may remember, 1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
It is possible that Zeta Leporis is orbited by planets. Though, our present technology cannot pinpoint one and researchers say that it may be years before we are able to produce enough evidence for the existence of smaller planets like Earth in Zeta Leporis's solar system.
Cited from:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/aas_solarsystems_010604.html
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