James Webb took the first image of the alien asteroid belt

For the first time in history, we can see what the asteroid belt looks like outside of our solar system. This feat was achieved by the James Webb Space Telescope. and the ESA offers us an official look.

Dusty asteroid belt is located around Formalhaut, a very hot young star It is located about 25 light years from our Earth. It is so close that it is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. In particular, in the constellation Pisces Austrinus.

Around Formalhaut concentrated system of three nested belts. They extend over 23 million kilometers, which is about 150 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. According to the first observations of James Webb, this formation must have been more complex than those found in our solar system. The Kuiper Belt – beyond Neptune – or the main belt – is located between Jupiter and Mars.

Although the Formalhaut asteroid belt was photographed for the first time, it was discovered much earlier, in 1983. In the same year, NASA directed its infrared astronomical satellite to the location of the star. However, only the arrival of James Webb confirmed the existence of the system’s two inner rings.

“I would describe Fomalhaut as an archetypal debris disk found elsewhere in our galaxy because has components similar to those found in our own planetary system.says András Gaspar, lead author of the study that revealed the results of James Webb.

By looking at the patterns of these rings, we can start to make a small sketch of what the planetary system might look like if we could take a picture deep enough to see the supposed planets…

András Gaspar, lead author of the study that published the results

James Webb continues to discover the surprises of the universe around us

The revelations of James Webb surprised researchers. According to the results, the inner asteroid belt is about 10 times wider than originally thought, But that is not all. The observed second ring was found to have an inclination of at least 23 degrees with respect to all other elements orbiting the star. What is the reason for this phenomenon? Everything indicates that this is the result of the rotation of the planets around Fomalhaut.

“The belts around Fomalhaut are like a detective story: where are the planets?” says George Ricke, one of the astronomers involved in the study. “I don’t think it would be a big jump to say that there is probably a really interesting planetary system around the star.

For its part, the outermost ring is closest to our solar system, the Kuiper belt. However, “James Webb” also noticed a curious formation around Fomalhaut. The latter has been called the Great Dust Cloud by researchers.. Its origin could be the collision of two space rocks over 644 km wide. However, it remains to be confirmed whether this is part of the system or something that shines outside of it.

As for the planets we might find in Fomalhaut, researchers have a good feeling. As they comment there may be three or more planets orbiting a star, and would be similar in size to Uranus or Neptune. To find out, scientists are already studying the pictures of James Webb.