For the first time in history: the Hubble telescope has captured two cosmic disasters in another system.

According to ТСН: Astronomers have witnessed an astonishing phenomenon around the young star Fomalhaut, for the first time in history identifying two collisions of large objects in another stellar system.

The star Fomalhaut is located 25 light-years from Earth and is approximately 440 million years old. This young star is surrounded by a planetary system, unlike our Sun, which has existed for 4.6 billion years.

Astronomers noticed a bright object near Fomalhaut, initially classifying it as a planet, but later it turned out to be a cloud of debris from the collision of planetesimals in another stellar system. Recently, another similar collision was discovered using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as remnants of the dust cloud. Therefore, astronomers obtained the first direct images of such events in another stellar system. The first dust cloud was named

Fomalhaut cs1

Fomalhaut cs2

Although it was not possible to directly observe the collisions of planetesimals, the consequences of these events were recorded. Scientists' calculations showed that both collisions involved cosmic rocks approximately 60 km in size each. This is four times larger than the asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.

According to scientists' estimates, there are about 300 million objects around Fomalhaut, similar to those that caused the collisions cs1 and cs2.

This discovery not only expands our understanding of the formation of planetary systems but also underscores the activity of processes occurring in young stellar systems. Studying such phenomena can help scientists better understand the evolution of worlds beyond our Solar System and the possible consequences for planets forming there.