Images captured by the Hubble Telescope of the vast debris systems surrounding nearby stars. Credit: NASA/ESA/ G. Schneider (University of Arizona), and the HST/GO 12228 Team

Using NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have completed the largest and most sensitive visible-light imaging survey of the debris disks surrounding nearby stars. These dusty disks, likely created by collisions between leftover objects from planet formation, were imaged around stars as young as 10 million years old and as mature as more than 1 billion years old.

The research was conducted by astronomers from NASAs Goddard Space Center with the help of the University of Arizonas Steward Observatory. The survey was led by Glenn Schneider, the results of which appeared in the Oct. 1st 2014 issue of The Astronomical Journal.

We find that the systems are not simply flat with uniform surfaces, Schneider said. These are actually pretty complicated three-dimensional debris systems, often with embedded smaller structures. Some of the substructures could be signposts of unseen planets.

In addition to learning much about the debris fields that surround neighboring stars, the study presented an opportunity to learn more about the formation of our own Solar System.

Its like looking back in time to see the kinds of destructive events that once routinely happened in our solar system after the planets formed, said Schneider.

Once thought to be flat disks, the study revealed an unexpected diversity and complexity of dusty debris structures surrounding the observed stars. This strongly suggest they are being gravitationally affected by unseen planets orbiting the star.

Alternatively, these effects could result from the stars passing through interstellar space. In addition, the researchers discovered that no two disks of material surrounding stars were alike.

A circumstellar disk of debris around a matured stellar system may indicate that Earth-like planets lie within. Credit: NASA/JPL

The astronomers used Hubbles Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph to study 10 previously discovered circumstellar debris systems, plus MP Mus, a mature protoplanetary disk that is comparable in age to the youngest of the debris disks.

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Its Complicated: Hubble Survey Finds Unexpected Diversity in Dusty Discs Around Nearby Stars