![]() ![]() Webb’s discovery of separate rings, published Monday in Nature Astronomy, has fueled hopes for finding planets around Fomalhaut. “Any time an astronomer sees a gap and rings in a disc, they say, ‘There could be an embedded planet shaping the rings,’” says Schuyler Wolff, a member of the study team and an astronomer at the University of Arizona, in a statement. While other telescopes had previously photographed one ring around the star, Webb used its infrared capabilities to reveal two more rings nearer to Fomalhaut-a cosmic surprise for the researchers.Įach of the three rings is an asteroid belt-with space dust, asteroids and fragments of ruined planets-and the gaps between them are a strong indicator that as-yet undiscovered worlds could be shifting the debris with their gravity. ![]() The James Webb Space Telescope has imaged the first asteroid belt found outside our solar system-and discovered it may hold evidence of hidden planets.Īstronomers focused the high-tech observatory on Fomalhaut, a nearby young star in a solar system that, though similar to ours, is much more chaotic. ![]()
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