Download Video
Video Information
Subscribe to Series
Band of Rubble
This artist's animation illustrates a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. Evidence for this possible belt was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope when it spotted warm dust around the star, presumably from asteroids smashing together.
The view starts from outside the belt, where planets like the one shown here might possibly reside, then moves into to the dusty belt itself. A collision between two asteroids is depicted near the end of the movie. Collisions like this replenish the dust in the asteroid belt, making it detectable to Spitzer.
The alien belt circles a faint, nearby star called HD 69830 located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Compared to our own solar system's asteroid belt, this one is larger and closer to its star -- it is 25 times as massive, and lies just inside an orbit equivalent to that of Venus. Our asteroid belt circles between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Because Jupiter acts as an outer wall to our asteroid belt, shepherding its debris into a series of bands, it is possible that an unseen planet is likewise marshalling this belt's rubble. Previous observations using the radial velocity technique did not locate any large gas giant planets, indicating that any planets present in this system would have to be the size of Saturn or smaller.
Asteroids are chunks of rock from "failed" planets, which never managed to coalesce into full-sized planets. Asteroid belts can be thought of as construction sites that accompany the building of rocky planets.
Related Media
 |
News Release NASA's Spitzer Telescope Sees Signs of Alien Asteroid Belt ssc2005-10 |
 |
Image Super-Comet or Big Asteroid Belt ssc2005-10a |
|
Image Alien Asteroid Belt Compared to our Own ssc2005-10b |
|
Image It's a Rocky World ssc2005-10c |
 |
Video Band of Rubble ssc2005-10v1 |
 |
Video Sunset on an Alien World ssc2005-10v2 |
Most Popular Videos
Spitzer Podcasts
Browse Videos in Science Animations
04.20.05 Sunset on an Alien WorldThis artist's animation illustrates what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical alien planet in a star sys... |
03.22.05 Distant Planet Flaunts its LightThis artist's animation shows a close-up view of a distant giant planet passing behind its star as a regular part of ... |
03.22.05 How to Measure a Planetary EclipseThis artist's animation shows a close-up view of a distant giant planet passing behind its star as a regular part of ... |
03.22.05 A Planet in a Different LightThis artist's animation shows first what a fiery hot star and its close-knit planetary companion might look like clos... |
03.01.05 Invisible Galaxies Come to LifeThis artist's animation demonstrates that an invisible galaxy shrouded in dust can become glaringly bright when viewe... |
02.11.05 Spitzer's Delicate Ring FlowerNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope finds a delicate flower in the Ring Nebula, as shown in this animation. The outer shel... |
02.07.05 Birth of an Unusual Planetary SystemThis artist's animation shows a brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disk of planet-building dust. NASA's Spitzer Spa... |
01.12.05 Trifid's Shifting SidesThis movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of the glowing Trifid Nebula to infrared views from NASA'... |
12.09.04 The Evolution of a Planet-Forming DiskThis animation shows the evolution of a planet-forming disk around a star. Initially, the young disk is bright and th... |
12.09.04 A Distant Solar SystemThis animation portrays an artist's concept of a distant hypothetical solar system, about the same age as our own. It... |
11.09.04 Icy Dawn of a Newborn StarIn this animation, we observe what a young star with a circumstellar disc would look like when viewed from different ... |
10.18.04 Swirling Rings of DustThis animation depicts colliding rocky bodies in an early planetary system. Such collisions form the basis of the pla... |
10.18.04 When Worlds CollideThis animation illustrates a massive collision between rocky, embryonic planets as big as mountain ranges. Such colli... |
10.12.04 Galactic Fossil Revealed in Infrared LightThis animation demonstrates the power of infrared light to see what visible light cannot -- a newfound bundle of star... |
10.07.04 Visible-Infrared WhirlpoolThis animation transitions from the more familiar visible light image of the "Whirlpool Galaxy" to the dramatic new v... |
10.06.04 Supernova ExplosionThis animation of a supernova explosion demonstrates what happens when a massive star explodes and creates a shell of... |
10.06.04 Kepler's Supernova Remnant - Zoom-InThis "zoom" starts in the Scorpius constellation and pushes through deeper and narrower telescopic fields to at last ... |
10.06.04 Kepler's Supernova Remnant - Composite ImageThe composite view of the supernova splits into its three components: blue-green for Chandra, yellow for Hubble, and ... |
08.09.04 Spitzer Discovers Hidden RingThis animation transitions from a visible light image of the planetary nebula called NGC 246 to Spitzer's new infrare... |
06.01.04 Missing Host Galaxies Found in Infrared - 2In a collaborative effort between NASA's three Great Observatories, astronomers have solved a cosmic mystery by ident... |
06.01.04 Missing Host Galaxies Found in Infrared - 1In a collaborative effort between NASA's three Great Observatories, astronomers have solved a cosmic mystery by ident... |
06.01.04 The Making of a Galactic ParallelogramIn this animation, the elliptical galaxy Centaurus A is seen through the eyes of three different telescopes. Initiall... |
05.27.04 Spitzer Sheds Infrared Light on Hundreds of Newborn StarsObservations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal hundreds of newly forming stars in the nebula RCW49, located ... |
05.27.04 Icy Organics in Planet-Forming DisksUsing the Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers are probing the chemistry of circumstellar disks, the dusty discs that... |
05.27.04 Forming a Planetary GapAstronomers are using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to probe the structures of circumstellar disks, the dusty disks ... |
04.14.04 Star Formation in the DR21 RegionObservations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a turbulent nest of giant newborn stars too shrouded in dust ... |
03.15.04 Orbit of SednaThis animation shows the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," in relation to the rest... |
03.08.04 Star Formation in Henize 206Starting with a wide view of the environment surrounding the Henize 206 star formation region, the animation moves in... |
03.08.04 Triggered Star FormationThis animation illustrates the process of triggered star formation. First, a massive star in its final death throes e... |
01.13.04 The Tarantula NebulaNASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope has captured in stunning detail the spidery filaments and newborn stars of the Tar... |
12.18.03 Messier 81This 22-second animation uses an "infrared spotlight" to highlight differences between a visible-light image of Messi... |
12.18.03 Herbig-Haro 46/47This 18-second animation zooms in on Herbig-Haro 46/47 and its embedded protostar with molecular outflows. Spitzer/IR... |
12.18.03 Dark Globule in IC 1396This 22-second animation shows how our view of a dark globule in IC 1396 changes as we move from visible light throug... |
03.18.03 Model Dust RingA 12-second animation shows how ansae are created, by taking a model dust ring and tilting it from a face-on orientat... |
