Stunning new images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal the solar system in greater detail than ever before.
Fomalhaut is a star about 25 light-years from Earth surrounded by a belt of dust that stretches 14 billion miles across.
Scientists have revealed that two deeper belts also surround the star, as well as a “large dust cloud,” thanks to new data from the $10 billion telescope.
Researchers previously thought they had found a planet around Fomalhaut, although it was later considered to be the remnant of a cosmic collision.
However, the discovery of these new belts around Fomalhaut could be the strongest indication yet that it contains planets – possibly with alien life.
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus. Pictured is a new composite of the Foam Whale with its harnesses
Fomalhaut has three belts – two previously known outer and inner belts and one in the middle that was recently discovered by JWST
A study describing the findings, led by Andras Gaspar of the University of Arizona, was published today in the journal natural astronomy.
“Fomalhaut appears to be the site of a complex and possibly dynamically active planetary system,” they say.
The 440-million-year-old star has a mass of about 1.92 times that of our Sun and is located in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, about 25 light-years away.
Fomalhaut is one of the brightest stars in the night sky – 15 times more luminous than our Sun – and it’s burning hydrogen at such a frenzied rate that it will burn out in just a billion years.
We now know that there are three belts around Fomalhaut: a previously unknown inner belt and one previously known outer belt.
The farthest reaches 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star — about 150 times Earth’s distance from our sun.
Together, the three Fomalhaut belts form a prominent “debris disc” — a surrounding collection of cosmic dust, gravel, and other remnants from rocky collisions in the past.
For their study, experts analyzed images taken of the debris system around Fomalhaut using JWST’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), which sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Images of Fomalhaut and its dust disk are from individual sources including the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Telescopes such as Hubble and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have previously taken sharp images of the outer belt. However, none of them found any internal structure of it
The images show in finer detail the previously known outer ring, which is considered “identical” or similar to our solar system’s Kuiper Belt.
This ring of icy, donut-shaped bodies extends just beyond Neptune’s orbit and is “a region of leftovers from the early history of the solar system,” says NASA.
But the two newly discovered inner belts at Fomalhaut were also detected by Webb in infrared light for the first time.
This is exciting for astronomers because it hints at the possibility that Fomalhaut is similar to our own solar system, and that it may contain planets like ours.
“The belts around Fomalhaut are kind of a mystery novel – where are the planets?” said study author George Rick, US science lead for MIRI Web.
“I think it’s not too big of a leap to say there might be a really interesting planetary system around the star.”
The “narrow” belt in the middle may be driven by the gravitational influence of unseen planets, suggesting a world in the gap between the belts.
The newly discovered intermediate belt is also “out of alignment” compared to the outer belt and may be the origin of a previously known impact-induced dust cloud.
The images also reveal a large dust cloud within the outer ring, which the authors have dubbed the “Great Dust Cloud”.
This image shows the star Fomalhaut, which is 15 times as bright as our Sun and is located 25 light-years from Earth. It is burning with hydrogen at such an intense rate that it will burn out in only a billion years, 10 percent of the life of our star.
The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy, doughnut-shaped objects that extend beyond the orbit of Neptune in our solar system (pictured).
The great dust cloud may be evidence of a collision in the outer ring between “protoplanets” – large bodies of matter in orbit that are thought to be developing into a planet.
So either there are planets developed around Fomalhaut, or other planets that have already been around for millions of years.
Either way, Fomalhaut and our system have remarkable similarities, according to experts.
“I would describe Fomalhaut as the archetype for debris disks found elsewhere in our galaxy, because they contain components similar to those found in our planetary system,” said Gáspár.
By looking at the patterns in these rings, we can actually begin to draw a small outline of what a planetary system should look like – if we can actually take a picture deep enough to see the suspect planets.
High-resolution images of the Fomalhaut debris disk system have been released from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, pictured here in space)
Gáspár said Webb has the ability to finally detect planets around Fomalhaut thanks to NIRCam, another of his tools.
NIRCam captures light from the edge of the visible through the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
We’ve got NIRCam data too…to be released soon. That’s all I will tell MailOnline.
JWST has proven to be a thriving success and a major step forward in the advancement of astronomical knowledge since its launch from Earth on Christmas Day 2021.
It revealed the first set of images in July 2022, including a dying star covered in dust and a ‘cosmic dance’ among a group of galaxies.
Other stunning images released last year include the Pillars of Creation, Neptune’s rings, the Cartwheel Galaxy, and a stellar nursery known as the Tarantula Nebula.
James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope is designed to detect light from the most ancient stars and galaxies
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that can help unlock the mysteries of our universe.
The telescope will be used to look at the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, observing the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
The massive telescope, which has already cost more than $7 billion (£5 billion), is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The James Webb telescope and most of its instruments have a temperature of about 40 K — about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).
It is the world’s largest and most powerful orbiting space telescope, capable of looking back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
The infrared observatory orbiting it is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as Hubble’s successor rather than a replacement, as the two will be working in tandem for a while.
The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It orbits Earth at about 17,000 mph (27,300 kph) in a low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 340 miles.
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