In Brief:

Report: planets few and far between

(CNN) -- Almost all protoplanets likely die before they can evolve to maturity from dusty disk nurseries around their parent stars, scientists said this week.

Looking at favorable planet-forming habitats in the nearby Orion Nebula, astronomers found instead destructive cauldrons that would lay waste to stellar dust disks, like the primordial one around the sun thought to have spawned our planets.

The nebular neighborhood produced thousands of sun-like stars over the past 10 million years, along with a handful of marauding stars that emit enough killer radiation to destroy most protoplanetary disks in their territory.

The few stars lucky enough to escape the killer rays, however, are most likely locked in eccentric orbits with one or more companion stars, which would hinder planets from forming.

"There is a popular misconception that most stars have planets, and that solar systems abound in the universe," said Colorado University at Boulder astronomer John Bally. "The reality seems to be that Earth's solar system is a special place and that we are lucky to be here."

Board probes super-rocket test mishap

(CNN) -- NASA convened a board Wednesday to investigate the loss of a hypersonic experimental aircraft.

Minutes before the X-43 prototype was to fly under its own power during a Saturday test, mission controllers intentionally destroyed it over the Pacific Ocean after the Pegasus booster rocket carrying it skyward careened out of control.

The pilotless craft was equipped with a propulsion system that NASA thinks could revolutionize space and air travel. The so-called "scramjet" engine is designed to use air instead of rocket fuel to reach speeds in excess of seven times the speed of sound.

The technology, which relies on no moving parts, could greatly reduce space travel costs and air travel times.

The board, composed of representatives from numerous NASA departments, convened Wednesday at the space agency's Dryden Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California, where Saturday's mishap occurred.

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