The recent unprecedented resolution in infrared light from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the presence of three huge dust belts around the nearby young star Fomalhaut.
In accordance with Europa Pressthese belts, which extend to a distance of 23,000 million kilometers from the star, are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper belts of our Solar System.
The dust belts around Fomalhaut are considered to be “debris disks” analogous to asteroids and comets in our planetary system. These belts are the result of collisions between larger bodies, and their structure and patterns reveal valuable information about the formation and evolution of planetary systems.
Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Herschel Space Observatory, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) had previously captured the outermost belt around Fomalhaut, but no interior structures had been found until now. . The Webb Space Telescope has succeeded in physically resolving the thermal glow of dust in the inner beltsrevealing its existence for the first time.
The importance of discovery
The resolution of these inner belts provides valuable information on the formation and configuration of planetary systems. It is believed that these belts may be sculpted by the gravitational influence of unseen planets.
In our own Solar System, Jupiter and Neptune have similar effects on the asteroid and Kuiper belts, respectively. The presence of complex structures in the dust belts around Fomalhaut suggests the possible presence of embedded planets that shape these rings.
Study of these belts around Fomalhaut and other star systems provides a more complete picture of the formation and evolution of debris disks. The Webb Space Telescope joins Hubble and ALMA to obtain a holistic view of these disks, allowing the study of the warm inner regions of planetary systems.
