11 months ago
96 Space
Astronomers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to spot unusual asteroid belts astir the adjacent prima Fomalhaut, on with grounds for astatine slightest 3 planets
By Leah Crane
Fomalhaut, a prima 25 airy years away, hosts an highly wide asteroid loop and different ringing of debris
Adam Block
Astronomers person discovered a caller asteroid loop astir the adjacent prima Fomalhaut, arsenic good arsenic a unusual ringing of debris that is tilted with respect to the remainder of the system. Their observations whitethorn bespeak that this well-studied prima strategy is acold much analyzable than we thought.
András Gáspár astatine the University of Arizona and his colleagues observed Fomalhaut utilizing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope. We already knew that Fomalhaut had a immense outer disc of rocks and dust, akin to our star system’s Kuiper belt, but the predicted interior asteroid loop had ne'er been straight observed before.
“We thought that it would person a constrictive asteroid loop similar our ain star system, but it turns retired it’s precise different,” says Gáspár. Our asteroid belt is astir 1.5 astronomical units crossed – 1 AU is the region betwixt Earth and the prima – portion Fomalhaut’s interior asteroid loop stretches from astir 7 AU from the prima to astir 80 AU out. That is astir 10 times broader than expected.
There besides appears to beryllium a benignant of intermediate asteroid loop betwixt the interior loop and the outer disc, but it is tilted by astir 23 degrees from the level of the different 2 belts. This dense portion of debris solves a long-held enigma astir Fomalhaut – the root of the worldly that makes up its celebrated particulate cloud, Fomalhaut b. This was once thought to beryllium a planet but is present considered astir apt to beryllium a remnant from 2 protoplanets smashing together.
“One of the critiques of the models of Fomalhaut b being the effect of a large collision was the thought that determination was nary worldly wrong of these Kuiper belt-like rings, and these caller observations amusement that yes, determination is, particularly astatine the portion wherever Fomalhaut b supposedly originated from,” says Gáspár. “These puzzle pieces each acceptable unneurotic precise nicely.”
On apical of solving the Fomalhaut b problem, the researchers besides spotted what appears to beryllium a 2nd immense debris cloud, astir 10 times bigger than Fomalhaut b, successful the outer ring. They named it the Great Dust Cloud, and they think it whitethorn person originated from different protoplanetary smash-up.
The gaps betwixt the discs hint that determination whitethorn beryllium 3 oregon much full-fledged planets, perchance astir the size of Uranus oregon Neptune, orbiting Fomalhaut. The researchers are present moving connected analysing JWST observations that took a person look, specifically seeking retired planets.
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