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Fomalhaut Dusty Debris Disk (MIRI Compass Image)

An image labeled James Webb Space Telescope: Fomalhaut. An orange oval extends from the 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock positions. It features a prominent outer ring, a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and a bright inner disk. At the center is a ragged black spot where the detector is saturated. At left, a series of labels with lines indicate the individual features. From inside to outside, they are: inner disk, inner gap, intermediate belt, outer gap, outer ring, and halo. In the outer ring at about the 3 o’clock position, a white box surrounds a clump of material labeled great dust cloud. Two pullouts to the lower right show the clump in blue, using data at 23 microns, and orange, using data at 25.5 microns.

This image of the Fomalhaut system, captured by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. Labels indicate the various structures. At right, a great dust cloud is highlighted and pullouts show it in two infrared wavelengths: 23 and 25.5 microns. The ragged black spot in the middle indicates a lack of data due to detector saturation.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in astronomical units, which is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 93 million miles. The outer ring is about 240 astronomical units in diameter.

This image shows invisible mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key and labels show which MIRI filters were used when collecting the light.

Read the full image caption.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    22:57:39.05
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -29:37:20.05
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Piscis Austrinus
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    25 light-years (8 parsecs)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The JWST observations include those from program 1193 (C. Beichman)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    MIRI
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    21 Oct 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F2550W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Fomalhaut
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Dusty debris disk
  • Release Date
    May 8, 2023
  • Science Release
    Webb Looks for Fomalhaut’s Asteroid Belt and Finds Much More
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA; Image Processing: András Gáspár (University of Arizona), Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Science: András Gáspár (University of Arizona)

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An image labeled James Webb Space Telescope: Fomalhaut. An orange oval extends from the 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock positions. It features a prominent outer ring, a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and a bright inner disk. At the center is a ragged black spot where the detector is saturated. At left, a series of labels with lines indicate the individual features. From inside to outside, they are: inner disk, inner gap, intermediate belt, outer gap, outer ring, and halo. In the outer ring at about the 3 o’clock position, a white box surrounds a clump of material labeled great dust cloud. Two pullouts to the lower right show the clump in blue, using data at 23 microns, and orange, using data at 25.5 microns.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

The image is a single exposure acquired by the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The color results from assigning an warm color map to a monochromatic (grayscale) image.  Orange color map: F2250W

Related Images & Videos

An orange oval extends from the 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock positions. It features a prominent outer ring, a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and a bright inner disk. At the center is a ragged black spot where the detector is saturated.

Fomalhaut Dusty Debris Disk (MIRI Image)

This image of the dusty debris disk surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). It reveals three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star. The inner belts – which had never been seen before –...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA

Image Processing Credit

András Gáspár (University of Arizona), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Science Credit

András Gáspár (University of Arizona)

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