Incredible Results: Space Vultures and the Collision of Two Galaxies Captured by Hubble and James Webb

According to the Science and Technology Desk of SaedNews, citing ISNA, a team of astronomers from the University of Arizona (UArizona) has used the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to conduct an unprecedented deep study of a debris disk about 100 billion miles across, surrounding the star Vega, also known as the “Sitting Vulture.”

“This is the clearest view of Vega ever captured by combining Hubble and Webb observations,” said Andras Gáspár, a researcher on the project. “It’s a mysterious system because, unlike other circumstellar disks we’ve observed, Vega’s disk is absurdly flat.”

The James Webb telescope detected infrared emission from sand-sized particles orbiting the blue-white star, which shines 40 times brighter than our Sun. Hubble, meanwhile, revealed an outer halo composed of larger particles that reflect starlight.

Debris disks are remnants of dust and gas that once swirled around young stars. In Vega’s disk, the dust is layered, as radiation pressure from the star pushes smaller grains outward faster than larger ones. Schuyler Wolff, the project’s lead researcher, explained, “Seeing the separation of dust grain sizes helps us understand the underlying dynamics of circumstellar disks.”

Vega’s disk features a subtle gap located about 60 astronomical units from the star—twice the distance of Neptune from the Sun—but remains remarkably flat, even as it fades into the star’s dazzling glare. Researchers note that this suggests no Neptune-mass planets orbit in wide paths like in our solar system.

Kate Su, another lead researcher, added, “We can now observe in detail the diversity among stellar disks and how this diversity relates to underlying planetary systems. We gain insights into planetary systems even when hidden planets remain unseen. Much about planet formation remains unknown, and I believe these new observations of Vega will help constrain planet formation models.”