News Planetary Science

In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision

Two Neptune-sized planets around a remote star may have hit each other and cast an infrared glow

Illustration showing a donut-shaped cloud of vaporized rock and water in orange and red hues with a large rocky piece of debris in the foreground and a star in the background

The collision of two exoplanets may have left behind a donut-shaped cloud of vaporized rock and water (illustrated), which cast an infrared glow visible to telescopes.

Mark Garlick

By Elise Cutts

In a solar system about 1,800 light-years from Earth, two planets smacked into one another in an impact that vaporized them both.