New Hubble images may solve the case of a disappearing exoplanet

Hubble Space Telescope images reveal that two asteroid-sized objects collided in the debris disk around star Fomalhaut, creating a massive dust cloud that appears as a bright blob. This collision, the first observed between planetesimals outside our solar system, may solve the mystery of "exoplanet" Fomalhaut b, which disappeared after its 2008 discovery. Scientists now believe Fomalhaut b was actually a similar dust cloud from an earlier collision, not a real planet, explaining why it faded over time.