---
title: "Two Exoplanets Collided, Leaving a Trail of Planetary Gore"
description: "In a distant star system, two fully-formed exoplanets crashed into each other, leaving an unusual trail of space dust and debris in their wake."
date: "2019-10-24"
modified: "2019-10-24"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/two-exoplanets-collided-trail-planetary-gore"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Exoplanets"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Exoplanets"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Two Exoplanets Collided, Leaving a Trail of Planetary Gore

![In a distant star system, two fully-formed exoplanets crashed into each other, leaving an unusual trail of space dust and debris in their wake.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/planets-collided-trail-gore.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook\</em\>*

## Planet Guts

300 light-years away, two exoplanets recently crashed into each other, obliterating both and leaving a giant trail of dust and debris — or, in other words, planet guts.

The universe is [a violent place](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/life-earth-impact-another-planet>), and [space stuff collides](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/jupiter-absorbed-smaller-planet>) with other space stuff pretty frequently. But usually these collisions happen in the earlier years of a solar system or galaxy — *[CNN ](<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/world/exoplanet-collision-scn/index.html>)*[reports](<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/world/exoplanet-collision-scn/index.html>) that these shattered exoplanets give astronomers a rare glimpse into what happens when already-formed worlds collide.

## Cosmic Forensics

Most surprising to astronomers was the fact that the dust leftover from the collision was warm, according to *CNN*. Because the shattered exoplanets were orbiting a pair of billion-year-old stars, they expected the dust to be much cooler than measurements suggested, [according to research](<https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab0d7f>) published in *The Astrophysical Journal* earlier this year.

"The warm dust around \[the star system\] gives us a glimpse into what catastrophic impacts between rocky exoplanets might be like," lead author and UC Santa Cruz grad student Maggie Thompson said in a [new NASA press release](<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/when-exoplanets-collide>). "We want to know how this system subsequently evolves after the extreme impact."

## Rare Look

Because it was two fully-formed exoplanets that collided, astronomers now have an unusual opportunity to the composition of study rocky exoplanets, and perhaps how they formed in the first place.

"This is a rare opportunity to study catastrophic collisions occurring late in a planetary system's history," Carnegie Institute for Science researcher Alycia Weinberger said in the NASA release.

**READ MORE:** [What happens when exoplanets crash into each other?](<https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/world/exoplanet-collision-scn/index.html>) \[*CNN*\]

**More on other worlds:** *[This Rocky World With Three Suns May Have an Atmosphere](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/planet-three-suns-atmosphere>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)