Messy Building Zone

A messy planetary construction zone appears to encircle the bright autumn star Fomalhaut, as seen in this recent infrared image from Herschel Space Telescope, in which a broad disk of gas and dust encircles the star. The disk may include a vast reservoir of icy comets, hundreds of which may slam into each other every day, adding fresh ice to the debris ring. Images from Hubble Space Telescope reveal a possible planet inside the disk. [ESA/Herschel/PACS/Bram Acke, KU Leuven]