Fomalhaut is the bright white star of Piscis Austrinus, a young neighbour encircled by a vast ring of dust that telescopes have imaged directly.
At a glance
| type | white star (class A) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 25.1 light-years (7.7 pc) |
| its light left it | 25.1 years ago |
| luminosity | 16.6 × the Sun |
| radius | 1.84 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 8,590 K |
| constellation | Piscis Austrinus (Southern Fish) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is a main-sequence star hotter and larger than the Sun, and much younger. It is the brightest star in a large and otherwise faint part of the autumn sky, which made it easy to pick out. Its name comes from Arabic and refers to the mouth of the southern fish.
Hubble and later the James Webb Space Telescope imaged a sharp, wide ring of dusty debris around it, with further belts of dust inside, material thought to be ground down from colliding comets and asteroid-like bodies. Fomalhaut is also part of a loose triple system with two much fainter stars, one an orange dwarf and one a red dwarf.
What you see in the piece
With HUMAN EYE on it stands alone, white and bright, in a sparse part of the sky; from northern latitudes it stays low in the south.
Measured or modelled
An object called Fomalhaut b, first announced as a planet seen in reflected light, now appears more likely to be an expanding cloud of dust, perhaps left by a collision.
Questions
What is around Fomalhaut?
A wide ring of dusty debris, imaged directly by Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, along with inner belts of dust.