Asteroid collision in neighboring star system

Researchers report observations of an asteroid collision around the star Fomalhaut. A potential massive exoplanet was reported orbiting Fomalhaut in 2008. However, subsequent analysis of the object, named Fomalhaut b, indicated low mass, raising questions about its identity. András Gáspár and George H. Rieke reanalyzed previously published observations of Fomalhaut by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from 2004 to 2012 and analyzed additional HST observations from 2013 and 2014. The authors report that Fomalhaut b visibly expanded in size between the earliest and most recent datasets, while also fading in brightness and being undetectable in the 2014 data. The motion of Fomalhaut b was consistent with an escaping orbit. A model of a dust cloud, produced by a catastrophic collision between two large asteroids, in the vicinity of Fomalhaut, yielded a brightness profile, orbital motion, and spatial extent consistent with the observations. The results suggest that around 2004 two massive asteroids collided catastrophically in the Fomalhaut system, producing a large dust cloud, which gradually dispersed over the subsequent decade. Collisions powerful enough to have produced the observed dust cloud are expected to be rare in a dynamically quiescent system. Orbital migration of hypothetical planets around Fomalhaut could be creating dynamic instability within the system, according to the authors.

Article #19-12506: “New HST data and modeling reveal a massive planetesimal collision around Fomalhaut,” by András Gáspár and George H. Rieke.

MEDIA CONTACT: András Gáspár, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; tel: 520-360-0983; e-mail:

[email protected]

; George H. Rieke, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; tel: 520-245-8339; email:

[email protected]

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This part of information is sourced from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/potn-aci041520.php

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