Fact Sheet
Planetary Smash-Up
A body about the size of the Moon rams into another about the size of Mercury in this concept of a collision in another star system. Spitzer Space Telescope detected evidence of such a collision in the system known as HD 172555, which is about 100 light-years away. The collision, which probably took place a few thousand years ago, left behind a ring of dust which glows brightly in infrared wavelengths. [NASA/JPL/Caltech]
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