NASA Spitzer Telescope Captures Large Asteroids Colliding Near Star

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope may have just spotted the remains of a collision between large asteroids. It's found an eruption of dust around a young star with particles that could eventually lead to the formation of planets.

"We think two big asteroids crashed into each other, creating a huge cloud of grains the size of very fine sand, which are now smashing themselves to smithereens and slowly leaking away from the star," said Huan Meng, lead author of the new study, in a news release.

This is actually the first time that the researchers managed to collect data before and after the planetary system smashup. The scientists had been regularly tracking the star, NGC 2547-ID8. Then, between August 2012 and January 2013, the star surged with a huge amount of fresh dust.

The star itself is about 35 million years old and is located about 1,200 light-years away in the Vela constellation. Previous observations had recorded variations in the amount of dust around the star, which hinted at possible ongoing asteroid collisions. Yet this latest impact was rather large in terms of collisions, and reveals a bit more about the system.

"We not only witnessed what appears to be the wreckage of a huge smashup, but have been able to track how it is changing-the signals is fading as the cloud destroys itself by grinding its grains down so they escape from the star," said Kate Su, co-author of the new study. "Spitzer is the best telescope for monitoring stars regularly and precisely for small changes in infrared light over months and even years."

Currently, the researchers are watching a very thick cloud of debris which now orbits the star in the zone where rocky planets usually form. It's possible that astronomers may now be witnessing the very beginnings of rocky planet formation. They're planning on continuing to keep watch to see how long the elevated dust levels persist, which will allow them to calculate how often such events happen around this and other stars.

The findings are published in the journal Science.