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Frantic Comet Massacre Taking Place at Fomalhaut
Herschel's far-infrared observations of Fomalhaut and its disk. Credit: ESA
There may be some frantic activity going on in the narrow, dusty disk surrounding a nearby star named Fomalhaut. Scientists have been trying to understand the makeup of the disk, and new observations by the Herschel Space Observatory reveals the disk may come from cometary collisions. But in order to create the amount of dust and debris seen around Fomalhaut, there would have to be collisions destroying thousands of icy comets every day.
“I was really surprised,” said Bram Acke, who led a team on the Herschel observations. “To me this was an extremely large number.”
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Read the rest of Frantic Comet Massacre Taking Place at Fomalhaut (590 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Comets, Fomalhaut, Herschel space observatory
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