Fomalhaut C Archives

Artistic representation of the collision of two planetesimals in the circumstellar disc of the star Fomalhaut. Credit Thomas Müller (MPIA)

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Fomalhaut, Press Release

Astronomers See Fireworks From Violent Collisions Around Nearby Star

by Keith CowingDecember 25, 2025December 25, 2025

Young star systems are a place of violent collisions. Rocks, comets, asteroids and larger objects bounce off one another and occasionally coalesce, gradually turning the primordial dust and ice of […]

Left: NIRCam F356W detection of the Fomalhaut C debris disk in scattered light resulting from the MCRDI procedure (Section 4). The image has been smoothed by a gaussian kernel with FWHM of 6.7 pixels (3× the PSF FWHM). The inner software mask has a radius of 1. ′′5 and covers the region of significant residual speckle noise. Logarithmically-spaced black contours are drawn above the maximum for the color stretch to show the peak location of the bright south-western background source. Right: As the image on the left, but with silver contours showing the 1–5 σ levels for the ALMA detection of the disk reported in Cronin-Coltsmann et al. (2021). The gold arrows extend from the locations of the two assumed background sources modeled in Cronin-Coltsmann et al. (2021), showing their expected displacement due to the proper motion of Fomalhaut C (Gaia Collaboration et al. 2022). Both predicted positions are consistent with sources detected in the 2022 NIRCam data, supporting their identity as unassociated background objects. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Fomalhaut, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

JWST/NIRCam Detection of the Fomalhaut C Debris Disk in Scattered Light

by Keith CowingMay 2, 2024September 5, 2025

Observations of debris disks offer important insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Though M dwarfs make up approximately 80% of nearby stars, very few M-dwarf debris disks […]