Astronomers for the first time have detected a distant young star's dust eruption that might be the result of the collision of large asteroids leading to the formation of a new planet. This might lead to a better understanding of how lanets took shape in our own solar system, scientists said.

The star called NGC 2547-ID8, about 1,140 light-years from Earth, was surging with huge amount of fresh dust, scientists said.

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Huan Meng from the University of Arizona who led the study effort said scientists believed the eruption was caused by two big asteroids crashing into each other. He said that the collision crushed the asteroids to smithereens creating a huge cloud of grains that were the size of fine sand.

Young stars have dusty materials encircling them and eventually forming rocky planets. But before the dusty material could turn into planets, the material would clump together to form asteroids that constantly collide with each other.

Some asteroids were destroyed because of this process while some transform to protoplanets, large planetary embryos that melted internally.

NGC 2547-ID8 is a 35 million years old star that lies in the Vela constellation, a constellation located in the southern sky.

Kate Su, one of the researchers, said the group has been tracking down the changes that occurred in the collision. She said that cloud continuously destroys itself by grinding its grain for them to escape from the clutches of NGC 2547-ID8.

Su said very thick clouds of dusty debris orbits the star where the rocky planets were forming.

Researchers found out that when the cloud is facing towards Earth the surface area is exposed but when the head and tail of the cloud is in view they see less infrared light.

To date, the team is continuously gathering data on the process and outcome of the collision that can create rocky planets like Earth.

George Rieke, one of the researchers, said that watching the formation of rocky planets in real time is a rare and unique opportunity.

TagsSpace, Science, Astronomy, planets, solar system