Extreme Debris Disk (Artist’s Concept)

Extreme debris disks, a subclass of debris disks, contain unusually large amounts of warm dust close to their stars, in the region comparable to where rocky planets orbit in our solar system. Studying the composition of these disks, particularly their silica content, can provide information on the type of collisions — whether they are head-on or less direct, like grazing — and the general size of the crashing bodies — Mars-sized or Moon-sized — that are contributing to their dust content. This artist’s concept portrays one such collision.

Analyzing the composition of extreme debris disks benefits our collective understanding of our solar system, which may have experienced more than one extreme debris disk phase.