The Hubble space telescope had just finished a visible light imaging survey of dusty debris disks located around stars. Astronomers believe the debris to be remnants from planetary collisions.

The orbiting telescope captured images of debris disks shrouding young stars aged 10 million years and older stars aged 1 billion years. Astronomers have consolidated this data for this survey.

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A surprising look into these pancake-like structures shows variations and diversity that suggests these dusty disks are also complex and are apparently being pulled by gravitational forces from unseen planets orbiting these stars.

According to survey leader, Glenn Schneider from the University of Arizona, this process is like a journey back in time, witnessing these cosmic destructions during the evolution of the solar system and how planets were formed.

Researchers noted that no two disks are the same. Each dusty disk is as unique as a human fingerprint.

Schneider also details these star disk systems aren't just flat surfaces but are complex three dimensional cosmic debris structures embedded with smaller systems inside them. Those sub-interstellar dust disks could be caused by unseen planets.

One star called HD 181327 has a massive spray forming a ring made of dust and debris that spans to its outskirts. Researchers think this may be a result of a recent collision of two planets.

According to co-investigator Christopher Stark from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, this spray is made from material that doesn't originate from its host star as it spans massive distances comparable to the distance of Pluto from the Sun.

This spray could very well be remnants from a destruction of two bodies but this large distance is hard to explain. Scientists compare this event to the formation of the Moon. They theorize the Moon was formed when a protoplanet collided withthe Earth billions of years ago.

Another theory for these unique dusty disks around stars is an unseen material or force emanating from star systems as the stars travel through interstellar space.

Only about two dozen star debris systems were captured by Hubble. Others exude 100,000 times fainter light than other brighter stars among interstellar systems. 

TagsNASA's Hubble Captures Amazing Images of Interstellar Debris Disks, NASA, hubble telescope, debris disks, interstellar dust debris disks stars NASA hubble