Posted on 04/21/2020 1:12:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The first planet to be discovered outside our solar system isn't a planet at all, and may be a giant dust cloud created by the collision of two icy asteroids, a study finds.
Twelve years ago, astronomers spotted what they thought was a Saturn-like planet in the Fomalhaut star system 25 light years from Earth, and called it Fomalhaut b.
But now researchers from the University of Arizona claim the visible and infrared images of the 'planet' captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were actually of a cosmic collision.
The team studied the images in more detail and found they show the aftermath of two 125-mile-wide icy comets crashing into each other.
The comets left an expanding cloud of very fine dust particles that was photographed by the Hubble space telescope shortly after the collision.
Such an event is estimated to happen about once every 200,000 years - and sheds fresh light on the way planets evolve, the US team said...
The collision is thought to have occurred about 11 billion miles away from the star Fomalhaut in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.
Fomalhaut is much hotter than our Sun, 15 times as bright, and is blazing through hydrogen at such a furious rate that it will burn out in only one billion years...
Taking into account all available data, Gaspar and Rieke think the collision occurred not too long before the first observations taken in 2004.
The debris can't be seen by Hubble anymore as the dust cloud is made up of minute particles a 50th of the diameter of a human hair.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision | Universe Today | Jan. 10, 2005 | Dolores Beasley and Gay Yee Hill | Posted on 01/13/2005 8:50:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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Wait for Twitter:
DAMMIT, They still would have been around it Trump reacted faster! Trump lied! Planets died!
OK. I consider it as undiscovered.
Now how did they figure that out? It's rather astonishing that astronomers can detect exoplanets at all, but detecting a cosmic collision of two relatively small objects and the dust they left behind -- wow.
A bit off topic, but the author wrote "the dust cloud is made up of minute particles a 50th of the diameter of a human hair." I am shocked, shocked he didn't say "50 times smaller than a human hair" as most writers are wont to do these days.
Fomalhaut b didn’t kill itself.
Just another cover up. Don’t Panic!
What really happened was that the Outer Space Aliens from Outer Space saw us looking at the planet, thought we might be making a move toward that planet, and so they snatched it up and moved it to where we can’t see it.
Greedy bastiges.
Icy asteroid! STRAIGHT AHEAD!!
But they were positive it was a planet.
Just a positive that they wont be able to bamboozle us with our own money any longer if we stop giving it to them.
If it was named Alderaan, I think I know what happened.
Fun to watch...
From a safe distance.
Yeah, writing it the right way probably means the reporter was given a small box to clean out the desk and get out.
I used to bullseye womp rats back home, they're not much bigger than 125 miles...
The basis for a movie titled: “When Balls Collide...Ouch”?
“Two icy asteroids” - 2 aloof rump rangers in SF?
There is no bamboozling going on, other than your post. I don't recall reading that anyone said they were positive, but thanks for playing.
It's a little insensitive of a British news source (such as it is) to describe a collision as "titanic"...
Hey, it turns out that the song "The Sinking of the Titanic" (various titles and versions, lyrics are quite stable, although I'd like to know when "uncles and aunts, little children lost their pants" originated) was being sung within weeks of the tragedy.
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