Posted on by Evan Gough

Astronomers See the Wreckage Where Planets Crashed Into Each Other in a Distant Star System

This illustration depicts the result of a collision between two large asteroid-sized bodies. NASA's Spitzer saw a debris cloud block the star HD 166191, giving scientists details about the smashup that occurred. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Our Solar System was born in chaos. Collisions shaped and built the Earth and the other planets, and even delivered the building blocks of life. Without things smashing into each other, we might not be here.

Thankfully, most of the collisions are in the past, and now our Solar System is a relatively calm place. But frequent collisions still occur in other younger solar systems, and astronomers can see the aftermath.

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Posted on by Evan Gough

Tiny Object Found at the Edge of the Solar System for the First Time. A Kuiper Belt Object that’s Only 2.6 km Across

An artist's illustration of the newly-detected object. Image Credit: Ko Arimatsu

The Kuiper Belt, or the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, is home to ancient rocks. Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBOs, are remnants of the early planet-formation days of our Solar System. Small KBOs, in the 1 km. diameter range, have been theorized about for decades, but nobody’s every found one.

Until now.

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