The Observation of ASASSN-21qj
The star ASASSN-21qj vanished behind a veil of charcoal. This dimming signaled the end of a stable orbit for two bodies of ice and rock. The sun of that system retreated. I pushed myself to sit before the monitors for twelve hours until the spectral lines finally clarified the presence of glass and silicate. This changed everything for me because I realized we were watching the birth of a satellite in real time.
The orbital debris gathered in a thick ring of charcoal and ice and the instruments recorded the thermal signature of a core of magma. The gravity of the star pulled the wreckage into a path of stability and the heat of the impact radiated into the vacuum. The particles drifted into the void and the mass of the star anchored the remains of the planets. The heat pulsed from the center of the ring and the sensors captured the wavelength of the cooling silicon.
It took me three months of cross-referencing the photometric data with the orbital mechanics of the outer system to accept that the collision involved two ice giants. I forgot, okay, that the volume of a planet expands when the crust turns to liquid and the oceans become steam. Study the trajectory. Light fades. Atoms bond. Precision counts.
The sun dimmed. The mass cooled. Gravity worked.
The cooling mass of the planetary collision will eventually form a new world within the reach of our sight as the dust settles into a disk. The collision creates a laboratory of granite and gas. We observe the chemistry of the cosmos without the interference of theory. This event offers a view of the formation of a moon in the shadow of a giant.
The Ledger of Silicon and Ash
The sensors detected the presence of olivine and pyroxene within the cooling ring. These minerals indicate the destruction of a rocky mantle. The vaporized water from the planetary cores will condense into ice. Look at the shadows. The observation of these planetary remains provides a clock for the evolution of systems. It provides a guide for the growth of worlds and the behavior of matter in the deep cold of the universe.
A planetary collision afterglow and transit of the resultant dust cloud
NASA: Evidence of a Giant Planetary Collision
A Chronology of Shadows and Sight
December 2021: The star ASASSN-21qj loses most of its light over several weeks. Scientists at the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) at Mount Haleakala in Hawaii record the event. 2023: Researchers link the dimming to the infrared glow of a warm debris disk. 2024: Analysis of the WISE satellite data confirms the thermal signature of a cooling planetary remnant. This timeline suggests the formation of a new moon will take place over the next several centuries as the ring of dust coalesces into a single sphere of stone.
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