WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have observed what appears to be the aftermath of a violent collision between two planetary building blocks orbiting a large and luminous star, a glimpse of the type of carnage that may have been commonplace early in our solar system's history.
The apparent crash between two icy bodies each about 125 miles (200 km) wide occurred around a star called Fomalhaut, located a relatively close 25 light-years from Earth, that is about twice the mass and 17 times the luminosity of the sun, the researchers said. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).