Dusty Star

A bright ring of dust encircles the star Fomalhaut in this image from ALMA, an array of radio telescopes in Chile. The ring is fed by dust from comets that have smashed together. This is one of several rings around the young, bright star, which is visible in the southern sky on autumn evenings. The ring is about 13 billion miles (20 billion km) from Fomalhaut, and about 1.3 billion miles (2 billion km) wide. The ring may be held in place by the gravitational influence of a giant planet, although a putative planet seen in Hubble Space Telescope images turned out to be a blob of dust. [ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/L. Matrà/M. A. MacGregor]