Two Planets Collide in Deep Space

Foxnews ^ | 8/10/2009 | Staff

[Red in Blue PA]

Two distant planets orbiting a young star apparently smashed into each other at high speeds thousands of years ago in cosmic pileup of cataclysmic proportions, astronomers announced Monday.

Telltale plumes of vaporized rock and lava leftover from the collision revealed its existence to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which picked up signatures from the impact in recent observations.

The two-planet pileup occurred within the last few thousand years or so - a relatively recent cosmic timeframe. The smaller of the two bodies - a planet about the size of Earth's moon, according to computer models - was apparently destroyed by the crash. The other was most likely a Mercury-sized-planet and survived, albeit severely dented.

"This collision had to be huge and incredibly high-speed for rock to have been vaporized and melted," said Carey Lisse of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, lead author of a paper describing the findings in the Aug. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers believe the planets were moving at about 22,400 mph (10 kilometers per second) before the crash. The violent wreck released amorphous silica rock, or melted glass, and hardened chunks of lava called tektites. Spitzer also spotted large clouds of orbiting silicon monoxide gas created when the rock was vaporized.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from August 10, 2009.

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[SunkenCiv]

Whoops.

[Larry Lucido]

The two-planet pileup occurred within the last few thousand years or so

And it backed up rush hour traffic for hours.

[andy58-in-nh]

I hope they had insurance.

[rabidralph]

I hope they were wearing their seatbelts.

[MaxMax]

[Eaker]

This ping would have been more appreciated a few thousand years ago so I could have prepared!

I don’t even have camera batteries.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Red light cameras would have prevented this.

[grey_whiskers]

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!

NO more calls, please.

We have a winner!

[Political Junkie Too]

"Two distant planets orbiting a young star apparently smashed into each other at high speeds... revealed its existence to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope..."

-PJ

[grey_whiskers]

I don't know that I'd go so far as to call her a "young star" but there are definitely two globes there...and a black hole!

Cheers!