Hungarian astronomer discovers hidden asteroid belts: are they dangerous for the Earth?

András Gáspár, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, discovered two new asteroid belts in the closest solar system. And he was able to take some photos of them in infrared light.

Formalhaut is a nearby young star, and astronomers led by the Hungarian Mr Gáspár could make an image using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of its asteroid belt in infrared light. That is why you can see Formalhaut, the star of that solar system, in black. However, Formalhaut’s dust belt proved to be much more complex than previously thought, 24.hu wrote.

Our solar system has two asteroid belts. One is between Mars and Jupiter, while the other is outside the Neptune. The latter’s name is Kuiper Dust. Formalhaut has three belts, but we knew about only the outer one until Mr Gáspár’s image was published. According to Nasa.gov, the “three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometres) from the star; that’s 150 times the distance of Earth from the Sun.” Meanwhile, “the scale of the outermost belt is roughly twice the scale of our solar system’s Kuiper Belt of small bodies and cold dust beyond Neptune.” Clicking on THIS link, you may download the full-resolution image from the Space Telescope Science Institute.