May 10, 2023

Fomalhaut and the disks of gas and dust that surround it as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the discovery of new structures in the Fomalhaut star system. A team of researchers led by András Gáspár of the University of Arizona used the James Webb Space Telescope and found a new ring of dust and gas that adds to the two already known. The new ring is separated from the outer one by an already-known gap and from the inner one by a newly-found gap. The new gap was probably generated by gravitational perturbations that could indicate the presence of a planet or could have been produced by the formation of a dust cloud that occurred recently.