Post B2FmVVfLGHPeyC11gO by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B2FmVQAJiCcnuWSg88 by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
       2026-01-13T20:13:27Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       EVERYONE!!  Fomalhaut is at it again!!  Crashing its planetesimals together and making dust clouds!!!!I am very excited because I and others wrote papers saying that this would happen: if Fomalhaut b (the first directly imaged "exoplanet" oops) was actually a dust cloud, it should fade away and another one should appear on ~decade timescales.I love being right about science predictions that don't involve destroying the night sky or atmosphere or Kessler Syndrome!https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.15861
       
 (DIR) Post #B2FmVVfLGHPeyC11gO by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
       2026-01-13T20:16:24Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       I learned about this from a planetary journal club at UBC that I had time to run to (while still mic'd) between filming.  The journal club was led by my PhD supervisor, who I wrote a paper with on Fomalhaut planetesimal collisions back in 2015!  Damn it's fun to do some real science in between all the depressing stuff.  https://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.1129