Scientists Release New Information about Area near Fomalhaut Star

Scientists have released new information about an area around a bright star called Fomalhaut in the Milky¹ Way galaxy². The observations, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, provide details about three rings, or belts, of debris³ orbiting Fomalhaut.

Fomalhaut, one of the brightest stars in our night sky, is about 25 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers.

Researchers first discovered a belt of debris around Fomalhaut in 1983. The Webb found two other rings nearer to the star - a bright inner one and a narrow middle one.

These three belts appear to be populated by solid objects called planetesimals. Some planetesimals are thought to join together early in a star system's history to form planets, while others remain as debris like asteroids⁵ and comets.

Andras Gaspar of the University of Arizona was the lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy.

"Much like our solar system, other planetary systems harbor disks of asteroids and comets - leftover⁶ planetesimals from the epoch⁷ of planet formation - that continuously grind themselves down" during collisions, he said.

Fomalhaut is 16 times brighter than the sun and almost twice as massive. It is about 440 million years old - less than a tenth the age of the sun - but is probably almost halfway⁸ through its life.

The three belts surround Fomalhaut from as far as 23 billion kilometers away. That is about 150 times the distance of Earth to the sun.

While no planets have been discovered yet around Fomalhaut, the researchers suspect the belts were created by gravitational forces of planets. Our solar system has two such belts - the main asteroid⁴ belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune⁹.

The gravitational influence of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, affects the main asteroid belt. Neptune's gravitational influence shapes the inner edge of the Kuiper belt.

Gaspar said that observations of Fomalhaut suggest the presence of a huge icy planet in the system.

Debris belts could offer information about planetary beginnings.

"Understanding this formation process requires a complete understanding of how these disks form and evolve," said study co-author Schuyler Wolff.

There are many open questions about the dust in the disks, the scientist added. Debris disks are the remains¹⁰ of a planet formation process, Wolff said, so their structure can provide valuable information about the underlying¹¹ planet population and history.

Words in This Story

debris – n. : the pieces that are left after something has been destroyed

harbor – v. to hold or contain (something)

epoch – n. an event or a time marked by an event that begins a new period or development

disk – n. a shape that is flat and round in appearance

grind – v. to crush or break (something) into very small pieces

1 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

2 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

3 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

4 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

5 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

6 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

7 epoch   

n.(新)时代；历元

参考例句：

• The epoch of revolution creates great figures.革命时代造就伟大的人物。
• We're at the end of the historical epoch,and at the dawn of another.我们正处在一个历史时代的末期，另一个历史时代的开端。

8 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

9 Neptune   

n.海王星

参考例句：

• Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun.海王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Neptune turned out to be a dynamic,stormy world.海王星原来是个有生气、多风暴的世界。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。