A glowing cosmic cloud revealed a cataclysmic collision

Scientists were observing a young, Sun-like star when they noticed something strange: a glowing cosmic cloud hiding a massive collision.

The object of the observations conducted by a team of scientists is a young, Sun-like star, about 300 million years old. It appears that during these observations, the star's brightness suddenly and significantly decreased due to the presence of a glowing cosmic cloud. Looking at it more closely, the team discovered that, But shortly before this dip, the star showed a sudden peak in infrared brightness.

Destruction of creation

Within our solar system, scientists have evidence of giant planetary collisions dating back a long time. Clues, how The tilt of Uranus and the presence of our wonderful moonTell us about the time when the planets in our stellar neighborhood collided with each other, Changing its shape and orbit forever. Now scientists are finding similar evidence outside our solar system. When observing distant exoplanets, we seem to keep finding evidence supporting collisions between objects of this type. In the new study, there is evidence of such an effect A cloud of dust and gas of particular brightness.

Study in detail

By observing and studying the star, the team discovered a fortress Peak brightness that lasted for about 3 years. But two and a half years after this bright event, the star appeared unexpectedly something obscures it, Causing a sudden occurrence Decrease in brightness. The eclipse lasted for a little over a year, and the team continued to investigate the causes, and they soon discovered why: A giant glowing cloud of gas and dust. Trigger for the cloud? A cosmic collision between two exoplanets, one of which likely contains ice. In this new study, scientists suggest so Two giant exoplanets – From several tens of land masses – They collided with each other, Create both peak infrared and cloud brightness. After the collision, this cloud, which still contained the hot, glowing remnants of the collision, continued to orbit the host star and then moved in front of it, eclipsing it. The glow from the collision should still be visible to telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

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