Major smashups between rocky bodies shaped our solar system. Observations of a similar crash give clues about how frequent these events are around other stars.
Most of the rocky planets and satellites in our solar
system, including Earth and the Moon, were formed or shaped by massive
collisions early in the solar system’s history. By smashing together, rocky
bodies can accumulate more material, increasing in size, or they can break
apart into multiple smaller bodies.
Astronomers using NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope have in the past found evidence of
these types of collisions around young stars where rocky planets are forming.
But those observations didn’t provide many details about the smashups, such as
the size of the objects involved.
This illustration depicts the result of a collision
between two large asteroid-sized bodies: a massive debris cloud around a young
star. NASA’s Spitzer saw a debris cloud block the star HD 166191, giving
scientists details about the smashup that occurred.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/smash-up-how-to-create-rocky-planets
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