Rocky debris around Vega. Artwork of the ring of rocky debris orbiting the star Vega. 25 light years distant, Vega is the brightest star in the conste

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Rocky debris around Vega. Artwork of the ring of rocky debris orbiting the star Vega. 25 light years distant, Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the fifth-brightest in the sky. It debris disk is thought to be composed of dust particles and asteroid-like objects. The origin of the disk is not certain. It may have formed from material left from the formation of the star, or from a later collision between protoplanets. The structure of the debris disk has been examined in infrared by the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory. The SST observations revealed a more extensive disk structure than previously known. Image published in 2013.

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Size: 3951px × 2222px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: artwork, asteroid, asteroids, astronomical, astronomy, bright, collision, debris, disk, dust, herschel, hso, illustration, infrared, lyra, observations, observatory, orbit, orbiting, planetary, protoplanetary, ring, rock, rocks, rocky, science, space, spitzer, sst, star, stellar, system, telescope, universe, vega