Collision of Planets

A dramatic glimpse of the aftermath of a collision between two exoplanets is giving scientists a view at what can happen when planets [blank] into each other. A similar event in our own solar system may have formed our Moon. Yet this mature system has shown signs of swirling dusty debris that is not cold, as would be expected [blank] the stars of this age. Rather, the debris is warm, reinforcing that it was made relatively recently by the impact of two planet-sized bodies. A decade ago, observations of this system by ground observatories and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope gave the first [blank] of this collision when the warm debris was first found. Now the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, [blank] the infrared brightness from the debris has increased by more than 10%, which is a sign that there is now even more warm dust.