Asteroids Found Colliding at Nearby Star for First Time | Hubble Space Telescope

Asteroids Found Colliding at Nearby Star for First Time | Hubble Space Telescope

This episode highlights a historical milestone: catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system were witnessed for the first time by astronomers using the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. 

Hubble captured the violent collision of two massive objects around the star Fomalhaut. This extraordinary event is unlike anything in our own present-day solar system that we know of. The video shows the sequence of events leading up to the creation of dust cloud cs2 around the star Fomalhaut. In the opening frames, Fomalhaut appears in the top left corner. Two white dots, located in the bottom right corner, represent the two massive objects in orbit around Fomalhaut. These objects approach each other and collide, resulting in a huge debris cloud that initially resembles an exoplanet as seen in reflected light. Years later, starlight is able to push the dust cloud outward from the star. 

Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, and one of the most luminous stars in the night sky.

Distance from Earth: ~25 light years

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Directed by: Bethany Downer and Nico Bartmann
Editing: Nico Bartmann
Web and technical support: Enciso Systems
Written by: Bethany Downer Music: Stan Dart - Organic Life
Footage and photos: NASA, ESA, STScI, R. Crawford (STScI), P. Kalas (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Calçada (ESO), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

Duration: 1 minute, 19 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2025

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