This is a list of collisions between exoplanets or planetesimals observed in extrasolar systems. These collisions are more common in young systems and are an important part in the growth of especially terrestrial planets from so-called planetary embryos. [1] Detections of individual collisions are nevertheless rare and are detected via transits in the optical, infrared excess, silicate emission or via infrared brightening. Collisions are thought to be common in a type of debris disk, so-called extreme debris disks (EDD). Co-moving stellar or substellar companions can trigger such collisions at an old age, creating old EDDs. Only about 24 EDDs are known. [2] [3]
This list does not include planetary bodies being accreted by white dwarfs, for this refer to the List of exoplanets and planetary debris around white dwarfs.
This list contains systems with individual collision events that were directly observed. Alternatively events were inferred from properties of the disk. The list is sorted after the start of the event.[ clarification needed ]
Name of star | spectral type | Approx. age (Myr) | Extreme debris disk? | Start of event | Colliding bodies | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beta Pictoris | A6V | 20 | no | ~150 years ago | 100–500 km body | So-called "cat's tail" feature in the disk observed in mid-infrared | [4] |
A few years before 2004 | Decreased mid-infrared flux and disappearance of forsterite emission | [5] | |||||
Fomalhaut | A3V | 440 | no | Early 2004 | Two bodies of ≥110 km in size, or a 56 km body impacting a 893 km body | Fomalhaut b was once suspected to be a planet, but is now suspected to be the remains of a planetary collision | [6] |
P1121 | F9V | 80 | yes [3] | Before 2012 | Two bodies with sizes of ≥100 km | One hypervelocity impact | [2] [7] |
NGC 2547–ID8 | G6V | 35 | yes [3] | late 2012 | Two bodies with sizes of ≥100 km | likely grazing or hit-and-run type event | [7] [8] |
early 2014 | 100 km bodies, maybe same objects as the first event | fragments dominated by boulders | [7] | ||||
HD 169142 | A5V | 6 | no | 2013–2018 | Unknown | Variability interpreted as appearance and disappearance of a dust ring. Comparisons with EDDs were made. | [9] |
TYC 4209-1322-1 | G1V | 275 | yes [3] | 2010 or earlier | unknown | [10] | |
Sometime in 2014 | Two ≥90 km bodies | brightening and fading between 2014 and 2018 | [11] [10] | ||||
HD 166191 | late F- to early G | 10 | yes [3] | Early 2018 | Two ≥500 km bodies | Sudden increase of dust production in early 2018, reaching a high in 2019. Also transit of star-sized dust clouds, produced by the collisions. | [12] |
V488 Persei | K2-2.5 V | 80 | yes [3] | 2019 | Two 60 km bodies | Constant collisions will last 1,000 to 10,000 years. Possibly formation of a Mercury-like planet. | [13] [14] |
ASASSN-21qj | G2 | 300 | no? | December 2021 | Two ice giants | Breakup of exocomets was also proposed. [15] | [16] |
HD 172555 | A5V | 23 | no | Within 0.1 Myr | Two planetesimals | Compared to the formation of the Moon | [17] [18] |
BD+20 307 | F-type binary | ≥1000 | yes [3] | Unknown | Planetary-scale | Catastrophic collision between planetary-scale bodies | [19] [20] |
HD 15407A | F3V | 80 or 2100 | yes [3] | Unknown | Planetesimals? | One giant hypervelocity impact? | [21] [22] |
HD 23514 | F6V | 100 | yes [3] | Unknown | Planetary embryos | Member of the Pleiades | [23] |
TYC 4479-3-1 | G6V | 5000 | yes [3] | Unknown | ≥50 km planetesimal | Disruption of one body | [11] |
HD 113766A | F2V | 17 | yes [3] | Unknown | Partially differentiated bodies | Recent impact of two asteroids or planetary bodies | [24] [25] |
TYC 8830-410-1 | G9V | 600 | yes [3] | Unknown | Rocky bodies | Giant impact | [26] |
These objects appear as EDDs in Moór et al. [3] EDDs are listed here, because they are often associated with individual giant collisions. List is sorted after discovery year.
Name of star | Spectral type | Approx. age (Myr) | Notes | Discovery year [3] | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
TYC 8241–2652–1 | K2 | 10 | rapid disappearance of the disk, unknown mechanism | 2012 | [27] [28] |
RZ Piscium | K0IV | 30 | Intense continuous collisions, destroying a 90 km asteroid each year. | 2013 | [29] [30] |
TIC 43488669 | 100-400 | runaway star, without further estimates of the collisions | 2020 | [31] | |
TYC 4515–485–1 | F5V | >150 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2021 | [11] |
TYC 5940–1510–1 | G5V | 120 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2021 | [11] |
TYC 8105–370–1 | G9V | 130 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2021 | [11] |
BD-04 3234 (TYC 4946–1106–1) | F6V | >150 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2021 | [11] |
TYC 9196-2916-1 | K4.5V | 85 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2022 | [32] [3] |
2MASS J06091701-1508085 | G9V | 200 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2024 | [3] |
2MASS J07120655-4752423 | K3.5V | 240 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2024 | [3] |
CD-44 6765 | K0.5V | 5500 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2024 | [3] |
2MASS J20431522+1043355 | K4V | 250 | without further estimates of the collisions | 2024 | [3] |
Name of star | spectral type | approximate age (Myr) | notes | discovery year [3] | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
HD 145263 | F4V | 11 | hypervelocity impact was excluded in one study, instead extreme space weathering was suggested to explain observed mineralogy. [33] This object appears as an EDD in Moór et al. [3] | 1998 | [33] |
A proplyd, short for ionized protoplanetary disk, is an externally illuminated photoevaporating protoplanetary disk around a young star. Nearly 180 proplyds have been discovered in the Orion Nebula. Images of proplyds in other star-forming regions are rare, while Orion is the only region with a large known sample due to its relative proximity to Earth.
AU Microscopii is a young red dwarf star located 31.7 light-years away – about 8 times as far as the closest star after the Sun. The apparent visual magnitude of AU Microscopii is 8.73, which is too dim to be seen with the naked eye. It was given this designation because it is in the southern constellation Microscopium and is a variable star. Like β Pictoris, AU Microscopii has a circumstellar disk of dust known as a debris disk and at least two exoplanets, with the presence of an additional two planets being likely.
NGC 2547 is a southern open cluster in Vela, discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751 from South Africa. The star cluster is young with an age of 20-30 million years.
A debris disk, or debris disc, is a circumstellar disk of dust and debris in orbit around a star. Sometimes these disks contain prominent rings, as seen in the image of Fomalhaut on the right. Debris disks are found around stars with mature planetary systems, including at least one debris disk in orbit around an evolved neutron star. Debris disks can also be produced and maintained as the remnants of collisions between planetesimals, otherwise known as asteroids and comets.
HD 98800, also catalogued as TV Crateris, is a quadruple star system in the constellation of Crater. Parallax measurements made by the Hipparcos spacecraft put it at a distance of about 150 light-years away. The system is located within the TW Hydrae association (TWA), and has received the designation TWA 4.
Gliese 42 is a star in the southern constellation of Sculptor. It is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of +7.3. The annual parallax shift of 70.56 mas provides a distance estimate of 46 light years. It has a relatively high proper motion, advancing 0.62 arcseconds across the sky per annum, and is moving closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −13 km/s.
An exocomet, or extrasolar comet, is a comet outside the Solar System, which includes rogue comets and comets that orbit stars other than the Sun. The first exocomets were detected in 1987 around Beta Pictoris, a very young A-type main-sequence star. There are now a total of 27 stars around which exocomets have been observed or suspected.
HD 23514, is a star in the Pleiades. It is a main-sequence star of class F6, and has been seen to have hot dust particles orbiting around it. These materials, otherwise known as planetesimals which orbit within a circumstellar disc, are evidence of possible planetary formation. The debris disk shows evidence of being rich in silica.
HD 61005, also known as HIP 36948 and The Moth, is a young star located in the southern constellation Puppis, the poop deck. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.22, making it readily visible in binoculars, but not to the naked eye. The object is located relatively close at a distance of 119 light years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements but is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 22.6 km/s.
A Peter Pan disk is a circumstellar disk around a star or brown dwarf that appears to have retained enough gas to form a gas giant planet for much longer than the typically assumed gas dispersal timescale of approximately 5 million years. Several examples of such disks have been observed to orbit stars with spectral types of M or later. The presence of gas around these disks has generally been inferred from the total amount of radiation emitted from the disk at infrared wavelengths, and/or spectroscopic signatures of hydrogen accreting onto the star. To fit one specific definition of a Peter Pan disk, the source needs to have an infrared "color" of , an age of >20 Myr and spectroscopic evidence of accretion.
HD 194012 is a star in the equatorial constellation Delphinus. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.15, making it visible to the naked eye under ideal conditions. The star is relatively close at a distance of only 85 light years but is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 4.5 km/s.
ASASSN-21qj, also known as 2MASS J08152329-3859234, is a Sun-like main sequence star with a rotating disk of circumstellar dust and gas which are leftovers from its stellar formation around 300 million years ago. The star is located 1,850 light years from Earth in the constellation of Puppis.
HD 63332 is an F-type main-sequence star in the constellation Lynx. The star has an apparent brightness of 6.02, meaning that it is faintly visible to the naked eye under dark skies. Parallax measurements derive a distance of 29.6 parsecs to HD 63332. Considering the apparent magnitude and distance from Earth, the star's absolute magnitude is 3.66. No debris disks or exoplanets were detected around it.
HD 163296 is a young Herbig Ae star that is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. The disk is a popular target to study disk composition and several works suggested the presence of protoplanets inside the gaps of the disk.
2MASS J08090250-4858172 is a star in the cluster NGC 2547. In 2014 it was reported that the star had brightened in the infrared. This was interpreted as a collision between planetesimals. It is not the first time such a collision was inferred from infrared excess, with likely the first being BD+20 307, but ID8 was one of the first with the event being observed in real time. Later it became clear that two impacts occurred, one in late 2012 and another in early 2014.
HD 166191 is a young late-F or early G-type star in the constellation Sagittarius. It is surrounded by a large amount of dust. In 2019 it was reported in the Astronomer's Telegram that the star had brightened in the infrared, as was seen from Spitzer observations. A study was published in 2022, reporting on the result of a follow-up campaign. This study showed that a dust cloud as large as the star did transit in front of it. This cloud was produced from a giant collision between two planetesimals.
V488 Persei is a variable star in the constellation Perseus. The star was first identified as a variable in 1985 from data of a 0.9 m telescope at Kitt Peak. The survey targeted stars of the Alpha Persei Cluster, for which the researchers found a few stars to be variable. The star AP 70, later called V488 Persei was found to be variable with a period of 123.5 hours. The star is a BY Draconis variable, which shows periodic variations due to starspots. In 2012 researchers found a debris disk with extreme infrared excess. The researchers suggested that this dust is the aftermath of the collision between two planetary embryos.
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