Stars like the sun<\/a> don\u2019t just stop shining for no reason,\u201d Nadia Zakamska, a professor of astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University, recalled, \u201cso dramatic dimming events like this are very rare.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/noirlab2602a.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
An artist\u2019s illustration shows a large disk of planetary debris shrouded by a thick cloud of dust and gas as it passes in front of a star. Astronomers say a mystery object is surrounded by a metallic cloud like this (International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/P. Marenfeld & M. Zamani)<\/p>\n
The discovery was made with the Gemini South telescope, which is located in Chile and operated by NOIRLab, but the team also used a telescope at New Mexico\u2019s Apache Point Observatory and Chile\u2019s Magellan Telescopes.<\/p>\n
Then, the researchers compared their observations to past data collected on the star. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s how they determined that the star had been obscured by a meandering, whirling cloud of gas and dust, which stretches across some 120 million miles – and that the cloud is bound by gravity to a second object that orbits the star.<\/p>\n
The astronomers don\u2019t yet know what the object is, but observations show it\u2019s at least a few times the mass of Jupiter or larger.<\/p>\n
It could be a brown dwarf or a low-mass star, NOIRLab theorized. If it is a star or a planet, the cloud would be deemed either a circumsecondary or a circumplanetary disk, respectively. <\/p>\n
In either case, finding this is exceptionally rare.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iotw2223a.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
The Gemini South telescope is seen in Chile. The telescope\u2019s GHOST instrument revealed the make up of the cloud (International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/T. Slovinsk\u00fd)<\/p>\n
Data from the Gemini South\u2019s GHOST instrument, which studies objects based on patterns of wavelengths of light, showed that the cloud, now about 1.2 billion miles from the star, is made up of multiple metals after observing it for more than two hours. The metals include iron and calcium. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe sensitivity of GHOST allowed us to not only detect the gas in this cloud, but to actually measure how it is moving,\u201d said Zakamska. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ve never been able to do before in a system like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zakamska\u2019s theory is that the cloud was made after two planets collided in J0705+0612\u2019s planetary system.<\/p>\n
In any case, it offers a glimpse into the processes shaping planetary systems after they form.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis event shows us that even in mature planetary systems, dramatic, large-scale collisions can still occur. It\u2019s a vivid reminder that the universe is far from static – it\u2019s an ongoing story of creation, destruction and transformation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-422889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}