Spectacular Cosmic Collision Captured in New Hubble Image

Back in 2008 astronomers examining Fomalhaut discovered a potential planet orbiting the star—subsequent observations, however, showed that the orb was fading, leading some to question whether it was a planet or the debris left over from a collision between two smaller objects. By 2014 it had disappeared. And in a new study published in Science, astronomers describe how, in 2023, they found a different point of light that resembles the previously discovered object.