Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2023 May 6
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                        Fomalhaut's Dusty Debris Disk
  Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]CSA, Processing: András Gáspár (Univ.
   of Arizona), Alyssa Pagan ([6]STScI), Science: [7]A. Gáspár (Univ. of
                               Arizona) et al.

   Explanation: [8]Fomalhaut is a bright star, a 25 light-year [9]voyage
   from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation [10]Piscis
   Austrinus. Astronomers first [11]noticed Fomalhaut's excess infrared
   emission in the 1980s. Space and ground-based telescopes [12]have since
   identified the infrared emission's source as a disk of dusty debris
   surrounding the hot, young star related to the ongoing formation of a
   planetary system. [13]But this sharp infrared image from the James Webb
   Space Telescope's MIRI camera reveals details of Fomalhaut's debris
   disk never before seen, including a large dust cloud in the outer ring
   that is possible evidence for colliding bodies, and an inner dust disk
   and gap likely shaped and maintained by embedded but unseen planets.
   [14]An image scale bar in au or astronomical units, the average
   Earth-Sun distance, appears at the lower left. Fomalhaut's outer
   circumstellar dust ring lies at about twice the distance of our own
   Solar System's [15]Kuiper Belt of small icy bodies and debris beyond
   the orbit of Neptune.

                       Tomorrow's picture: Halley dust
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [27]Robert Nemiroff ([28]MTU) & [29]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([30]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [31]Specific rights apply.
              [32]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [33]ASD at [34]NASA / [35]GSFC,
                         [36]NASA Science Activation
                           & [37]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2305/STSCI_FomalhautDisk.png
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. https://www.esa.int/
   5. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/
   6. https://www.stsci.edu/
   7. https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03789
   8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomalhaut
   9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocannon's_World
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piscis_Austrinus
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980423.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050701.html
  13. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-109
  14. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/109/01GWWHHHT27VZEQ5D1MK6EHD46
  15. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/overview/
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230505.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  20. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  25. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230506
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230507.html
  27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  30. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  33. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  34. https://www.nasa.gov/
  35. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  36. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  37. http://www.mtu.edu/