Fomalhaut Dust Disk Indicates Planets
			
		
		
		
			One of the brightest stars on the sky likely has planets.  
Fomalhaut, actually the 17th 
brightest star in the night sky, is a mere 22 
light-years away but only a fraction of the age of our 
Sun.  
Recent observations in 
far infrared light with a detector cooled to near zero 
kelvins indicate a 
dust disk surrounding 
Fomalhaut that has both a hole in the center and a warped
edge. 
Now the hole in the center indicates that 
dust has fallen onto interior planets -- 
possibly like the 
Earth -- while the warp at the edge 
indicates the gravitational pull of a planet like 
Jupiter or 
Saturn.  
The discovery image was taken with the 
SCUBA instrument through the 
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in 
Hawaii, 
USA.  
The above illustration shows what the 
Fomalhaut dusty 
planetary system 
might look like from near the large planet.