New observations reveal a dust ring estimated to have formed in the last million years
This artist rendering shows how a massive collision of objects, perhaps the size of the planet Pluto, smashes the objects and creates a ring of dust around the nearby star Vega, which is the brightest star in the sky.
New observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope reveal the existence of the dust ring, and provide an estimate that the collision occurred within the last million years.
Astronomers believe that embryonic planets collided, smashed into smaller pieces and these collided with other fragments, creating finer fragments.
