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

In space, 25 light-years away, a star called 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. 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. It shows 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. It's a chaotic place where planets are being formed, destroyed, and reformed. For a long time, scientists thought they had spotted a planet around Fomalhaut. They called it Fomalhaut b. But this "planet" turned out to be a trick of the light. It was actually the glowing debris from a massive collision. This shows how tricky it can be to spot planets in other star systems.The two collisions, named Fomalhaut cs1 and cs2, are quite rare. Scientists think 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. That's about four to six times the size of the dinosaur-killing asteroid. The Fomalhaut system has a lot of these large bodies. In fact, there could be around 300 million of them. There are also smaller bodies that help keep the dust belt replenished. 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. This planet could be responsible for the dust belt's shape. 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.