Observing the Collision of Planets: Insights into the Formation of Astronomical Objects

One of the ideas for the Formation of the moon is that a planet the size of Mars may have collided with Earth early in the solar system, and that the collision caused not only the Moon to tilt but also the Earth, creating the seasons we know today.

It is expected that collisions may occur more frequently as a new planetary system forms. This is because the objects are still forming and different objects can overlap in the same orbit. Something similar is expected to have happened to Earth and a planet called Theia.

A group of astronomers succeeded for the first time, to observe the collision of two planets and the resulting result. They recognized the emergence of a structure that could explain why the luminosity of stars dims seemingly out of nowhere.

How does a planetary system come about?

The most accepted hypothesis today is the fog hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, unstable clouds of molecular hydrogen collapse into spheres that spin and form stars. Some of the surrounding gas also collapses, forming planets.

Recently ALMA was able to Pictures from disks that are in the The process of planet formation around a star. This process is complex and there are still some open questions about how it occurs.

Solar system emerging from a cloud

According to the nebula hypothesis, the solar system is believed to have formed from a nebula. It is not yet known exactly what caused this gas cloud to collapse. Some research suggests that a nearby star’s supernova released enough energy to cause the cloud to collapse.

The rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars formed in the region close to the Sun, while the gas giants appeared in the outer region.

This is partly due to the intense gravitational effect of the sun makes the inner part a little more chaotic and unstable than the outer part. This is one of the reasons why giant planets could only form in the outer part.

The chaotic world that inhabited the Earth

Dozens or even hundreds of protoplanets are estimated to have formed in the inner part of the solar system. Given the sheer volume and gravitational pull of the Sun, it was common for protoplanets to collide with each other and form larger objects.

This probably happened with the protoplanet from which Earth was supposed to form and a protoplanet called Theia. This collision probably created a cloud of dust, rock and gas from which the moon later formed.

Das ASASSN-21qj-Planetensystem

After the ASASSN Observatory alerted them to a change in the brightness of the star ASASSN-21qj, the group turned their attention to it. The star’s light seemed to have dimmed, and beyond that they found Evidence that the star had increased its brightness in the infrared just before it began to fade.

Such a sudden change in brightness is unusual for a sun-like main sequence star. That caught the attention of researchers, who began exploring a hypothesis: Two huge planets collided in front of the star.

The idea was that the collision between the two planets caused the infrared peak seen previously, and a structure called a synestie formed after the collision. The synesthesia would be a donut-shaped structure made up of the remnants of the collision. The synesthesia would pass in front of the star, giving the impression that the star’s brightness had decreased.

A possible explanation for what happened on Earth?

Observing the collision of two planets can give us clues about what happened in our own planet’s history. Some suggest that a synesthetic structure was responsible for the formation of the moon.

The discovery could also explain the dimming of various stars. One of the youngest was Betelgeuse, which dimmed in 2021 and was later determined to be caused by a cloud of gas passing in front of the star.

Next Steps

The idea is to continue observing the system’s next moments. The group proposes using the James Webb Telescope to understand the system’s dynamics in the infrared. Observing what is happening now could tell us what happened to our planet billions of years ago.