Spatially resolved imaging of the inner Fomalhaut disk using JWST/MIRI

Understand

Planetary debris disks around other stars are analogous to the Asteroid and Kuiper belts in the Solar System.

• Their structure reveals the configuration of small bodies and provides hints for the presence of planets.
• The nearby star Fomalhaut hosts one of the most prominent debris disks, resolved by HST, Spitzer, Herschel, and ALMA.
• Images of this system at mid-infrared wavelengths using JWST/MIRI not only show the narrow Kuiper-Belt-analog outer ring, but also that (1) what was thought from indirect evidence to be an asteroid-analog structure is instead broad, extending outward into the outer system; (2) there is an intermediate belt, probably shepherded by an unseen planet.