Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision

Universe Today ^ | Jan. 10, 2005 | Dolores Beasley and Gay Yee Hill

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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a dusty ring of material orbiting nearby Vega which was probably the result of a series of protoplanets smashing into each other. Vega is the fifth brightest star in the sky, located only 25 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra. This dust is constantly being blown out by Vega's intense radiation, so it's unlikely that the star has had this much dust for its entire lifetime. Instead, this ring must have been formed recently, perhaps when a Pluto-sized object was pulverized within the last million years or so.

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Far enough away is actually the way I prefer planets, but que sera, sera.

• Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns
• 'Free-floating' planets found with no star in sight
• So Many Lonely Planets with No Star to Guide Them

and from the FRchives:

• First Alien Planet From Another Galaxy Discovered
• Rogue Planet Find Makes Astronomers Ponder Theory
• Planet Found With Comet-like Tail
• Scorched Alien Planet Has a Comet Tail (153 light-years from Earth)
• Cosmic Bullet Fired by Exploding Star
• 'Jupiter swallowed planet 10 times the size of Earth'
• Comet-like tail discovered trailing planet Mercury
• Will Mercury Hit Earth Someday?
• Venus' Tail of the Unexpected
• Moon has liquid core just like Earth...reveal sensors left on surface by astronauts 40 YEARS ago

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http://www.aero-news.net/images/content/aerospace/2005/spitzer-caltech-planetary-collision-vega-system-0105-1a.jpg