Hungarian astronomer’s discovery questions potential danger of hidden asteroid belts for Earth
Hungarian astronomer András Gáspár from the University of Arizona has made an exciting discovery in the closest solar system, located near a young star called Formalhaut. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Gáspár found two previously undiscovered asteroid belts located within Formalhaut’s system. The asteroid belts were visualized using infrared light, with the star appearing black in the images. Until Gáspár’s discovery, only one of the three asteroid belts within the Formalhaut system was known to exist.
Nasa.gov reports that the asteroid belts extend out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star, which is 150 times the distance of Earth from the sun. Furthermore, the outermost Formalhaut belt is twice the scale of our solar system’s Kuiper Belt. Astronomers believe that the asteroid belts surrounding Formalhaut were formed as a result of numerous cosmic collisions.
It is interesting to note that Formalhaut is visible to the naked eye from Earth and is the brightest star in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus. Although the newly discovered asteroids are not dangerous to Earth due to their distance, it is worth noting that the closest asteroid belt to Earth can be found between Mars and Jupiter and poses no threat to life on our planet. Gáspár’s discovery of the previously undiscovered asteroid belts within Formalhaut’s system offers insight into the development of planetary systems within the universe.
