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Nearby, Recent Interplanetary Collision Inferred

Posted by kdawson on from the when-worlds-collide dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes about a new discovery by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected signs of an interplanetary smashup only 100 light-years from here, and only a few thousand years ago. There's a NASA-produced animation of the collision between a Mercury-sized planet and a moon-sized impactor. The collision's aftermath was detected by the presence of what are essentially glass shards in orbit around the star. Here's NASA's writeup.

2 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Neat video, but not very accurate by JohnnyDanger · · Score: 5, Informative

    The impact on Mercury which created the Caloris basin caused some wacky geology at the antipodal point to the collision. This is called "chaotic" or "weird" terrain. Link.

  2. Re:Hmm... sample of 1... by notmyusualnickname · · Score: 3, Informative

    Approximately 14,600.