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A collision between giant asteroids in a neighboring star system called Beta Pictoris has likely occurred in recent years, and two different space observatories are helping to tell the story.
The Beta Pictoris system, located just 63 light-years from Earth, has long intrigued astronomers due to its proximity and age.
Although our solar system is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, Beta Pictoris is estimated to be a “teenage planetary system” at 20 million years old, said astronomer Christine Chen, a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has noticed the multiple system. times.
“That means it’s still being formed,” she said during a presentation at the 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 10.
Chen observed Beta Pictoris, which has two known gas giant planets called Beta Pictoris b and c, using the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope in 2004 and 2005. At the time, Chen and her colleagues observed several different populations dust within the system.
“So I was very excited to revisit this system in 2023 using the James Webb Space Telescope,” Chen said. “And I was really hoping to understand the planetary system in much more detail, and we’re certainly doing that.”
Since Webb opened its infrared eye on the universe in 2022, scientists have been using the space observatory to sift through gas and dust to study supernovae, exoplanets and distant galaxies.
By comparing the Spitzer and Webb observations, Chen and her colleagues realized that the data they had taken 20 years earlier occurred at a relatively relaxed time – and that two of the main dust clouds had since disappeared.
Chen is the lead author of a study comparing the views presented Monday at the conference.
“Most JWST discoveries come from objects directly detected by the telescope,” study co-author Cicero Lu, a former Johns Hopkins doctoral student in astrophysics, said in a statement. “In this case, the situation is a little different because our results come from what JWST did not see.”
The team believes that the Spitzer data suggest that a pair of massive asteroids collided just prior to the telescope’s observations of the system.
“Beta Pictoris is at an age when planet formation in the terrestrial planet belt is still taking place through massive asteroid collisions, so what we could see here is basically how rocky planets and other bodies form in real time,” Chen said.
Evidence of a massive collision
When Chen and her team looked at Beta Picoris between 2004 and 2005, they probably expected evidence of a “collision-active planetary system,” but they still didn’t realize it, she said.
In addition to the two known planets, previous research has found evidence of comets and asteroids orbiting the young system.
As the comets and asteroids collide, they create dusty debris and help form rocky planets.
The collision that occurred just before Spitzer’s observations likely pulverized a giant asteroid into fine dust particles smaller than pollen or powdered sugar, Chen said.
She said the mass of dust created was about 100,000 times that of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, which was estimated to be between 6.2 and 9.3 miles (10 and 15 kilometers) wide. The dust was then pushed out of the planetary system by radiation from the central star, which is slightly hotter than our sun.
At first, astronomers thought that small bodies were colliding and replenishing the dust clouds visible in Beta Picoris over time. But the powerful Webb telescope was unable to detect any dust.
Although gas giant planets have formed in the system, rocky planets are likely still forming.
Astronomers hope to make more observations of the system to see if more planets can be seen. In the meantime, studying the system may help astronomers better understand what the early days of our own solar system were like.
“The question we’re trying to contextualize is whether this whole process of terrestrial and giant planet formation is common or rare, and the even more fundamental question: Are planetary systems like the solar system that rare?” study co-author Kadin Worthen, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Johns Hopkins, said in a statement. “Basically we’re trying to understand how weird or average we are.”
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