Cosmic Crashes: The Eye of Sauron Star's Wild Past

In the vast expanse of space, 25 light-years away, a star named Fomalhaut is making waves. Known as the "Eye of Sauron" due to its striking dust belt, this star has been the site of some incredible cosmic events.

A Chaotic Cosmic Playground

Over the past 20 years, astronomers have witnessed not one, but two massive collisions between rocky objects around Fomalhaut. These objects, called planetesimals, are much larger than the asteroid that caused the dinosaurs' extinction.

Fomalhaut's dust belt is like a time machine, showing us what our own solar system might have looked like 4 billion years ago. This belt is made up of dust and debris from countless collisions—a chaotic place where planets are being formed, destroyed, and reformed.

The Illusion of a Planet

For a long time, scientists thought they had spotted a planet around Fomalhaut, which they called Fomalhaut b. However, this "planet" turned out to be a trick of the light—it was actually the glowing debris from a massive collision. This discovery highlights how tricky it can be to spot planets in other star systems.

Rare Collisions, Frequent Events

The two collisions, named Fomalhaut cs1 and cs2, are quite rare. Scientists believe such events should only happen once every 100,000 years. But Fomalhaut surprised everyone with two in just 20 years. This suggests that the star system has had many more collisions in its 440 million-year history.

The collisions were caused by planetesimals about 37 miles in diameter—about four to six times the size of the dinosaur-killing asteroid. The Fomalhaut system has a lot of these large bodies, with an estimated 300 million of them. Smaller bodies also help keep the dust belt replenished.

A Hidden Planet?

Even though Fomalhaut b isn't a planet, there might still be a planet hiding in the system. Scientists think there's about a 10% chance that the collisions weren't random. They might have been caused by a hidden planet's gravity, which could be responsible for the dust belt's shape.

A Lesson for Planet Hunters

This discovery is important for planet hunters. It shows that not every bright spot in space is a planet. Sometimes, it's just the aftermath of a cosmic crash. As we look for habitable planets, we need to be careful not to mistake these collisions for planets.