INBOX ASTRONOMY
NASA's Hubble Sees Asteroids Colliding at Nearby Star for First Time
Release date: Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:00:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
The spectacular, resulting dust cloud mimics the appearance of a planet.
First you don’t see it, now you do! While Hubble astronomers were repeatedly viewing the nearby star Fomalhaut and its planetary system, they suddenly saw a point of light appear out of nowhere. This object did not show up in any of their previous observations. The scientists quickly realized that Hubble had captured the violent collision of two massive objects, an extraordinary event unlike anything in our own present-day solar system. The huge debris cloud created by this impact looked like a newly found exoplanet.
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