Astronomers Say Alien Dust Is Nothing To Sneeze At

Artist's rendering of what HD 131488's inner planetary system might look like as two large rocky bodies collide. Inset illustrates the location of HD 131488's dust belts (top) and comparable regions to our own Solar System (bottom). HD 131488's hot inner dust belt has similar separations from its host star as the terrestrial planet zone (TPZ) around our Sun while the star's cool dust belt has similar separations from its host star as the Kuiper Belt region in our Solar System. Also shown for our Solar System are the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.