An asteroid cub, the first recorded outside our solar system (Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Gáspár (University of Arizona). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))
NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope is proving to be one of humanity's best investments, continuing to photograph the mysteries of the universe in an unprecedented way. This time it "bombs" with an image of an asteroid belt, the first recorded outside our solar system. Astronomers have used the space telescope's lens array and robotic photography to study a dust-shrouded annular system surrounding Pummelhout, a (literally) hot, young star about 25 light-years away.
Pummelhout's ring system consists of three intertwined rings spanning 23 billion kilometers(!). The rings turned out to be more complex than, say, the Kiefer Belt, the asteroid belt that lies beyond Neptune, or our solar system's main asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter.
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The outer ring of Pummelhout was discovered relatively recently, in 1983, with the help of a NASA infrared imagery satellite. The inner rings are being discovered for the first time, and the scientists' hypothesis is that they are fallout from previous collisions between larger bodies such as asteroids and comets, and these differ from the rings of stars in formation - which are emissions of material that is sprayed into space during the star's formation process.
Pummelhout's uniqueness lies in materials similar to those found in our solar system. Its formation helps scientists create a "diagram" on how a planetary system is built. Scientists believe the rings are formed by the gravitational force of stars that have not yet been seen, and may yet be discovered at the edges of the star being studied.
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