Mysterious ‘Disappearing’ Exoplanet was just a Big Cloud of Asteroid Trash, Study Suggests
The alleged exoplanet was bright and vivid in 2004, then totally vanished by 2014.
By Brandon Specktor | Senior WriterLIVE SCIENCE – April 20, 2020 | In 2014, a planet disappeared from the night sky.
The distant world — known as Fomalhaut b and located a neighborly 25 light-years from Earth — was infamous for being one of the first exoplanets ever discovered in visible light by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope; when astronomers first caught sight of it in 2004 and 2006, the planet appeared as a bright, cool dot moving briskly across the sky. Ten years later, that dot had vanished.
An illustration of the asteroid collision that may have resulted in the formation of Fomalhaut b — an alleged exoplanet that may just be a big cloud of dust.
(Image: © ESA/NASA, M. Kornmesser)What happened to Fomalhaut b? Did the world have a falling out with its guardian sun (named simply Fomalhaut) and drift away? Did the brilliant planet seek stardom in a bigger, brighter solar system? Or could a nefarious case of planet-on-planet violence be afoot?
