Webb inspects dusty debris disc around Fomalhaut

This image of the dusty debris disc surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s innovative Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), half of which was contributed by Europe. It reveals three nested belts extending out to 23 billion kilometres from the star. The inner belts – which had never been seen before – were revealed by Webb for the first time.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, as well as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have previously taken sharp images of the outermost belt. However, none of them found any structure interior to it.

These belts are most likely shaped by the gravitational forces produced by unseen planets.

[Image description: An orange oval extends from the 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock positions. It features a prominent outer ring, a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and a bright inner disc. At the centre is a ragged black spot indicating a lack of data.]

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