Fomalhaut

system

Fomalhaut is the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus, 25 light-years away, a young white A-type star famous for the sharp, off-centre ring of dust around it, nicknamed the 'Eye of Sauron'. A point once thought to be a planet ('Fomalhaut b') turned out to be an expanding cloud of collision debris — so no planet is confirmed, but the ring is spectacular.

Open in 3D viewSee Fomalhaut in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type

White A-type star

Distance

25.13 light-years

Confirmed planets

Science

Classification

Type: Single A-type star with a debris ring
Central star: Fomalhaut — A4V (~8590 K, ~1.9 M☉), young

Debris ring

Structure: A sharp, off-centre ring ~140 AU out, tilted ~66° — nested belts (JWST 2023)

Planets

Confirmed planets: None ('Fomalhaut b' was a dust cloud, retracted 2020)

Distance

Distance: 25.13 light-years

How we know

Note: No planet is confirmed: the bright point announced as 'Fomalhaut b' in 2008 later faded and spread out, and by 2020 was understood as an expanding dust cloud from a collision — not a planet. The debris ring is real and directly imaged. Real distance 25.13 light-years.

Discovery & history

Method: Naked-eye star
Name: Its IAU name Fomalhaut is from the Arabic 'the mouth of the fish'; Alpha Piscis Austrini.

Its dust ring was imaged by Hubble in 2005; a bright point announced as 'Fomalhaut b' in 2008 later spread out and was understood as debris from a collision, not a planet.

Images

Hubble Space Telescope coronagraph image of Fomalhaut's dust ring — a real photograph (the star's glare is blocked; a dot marks its position). The marked 'Fomalhaut b' was later reinterpreted as an expanding dust cloud. — NASA, ESA & P. Kalas, UC Berkeley (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image