Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Near-real-time studies like these help astronomers understand how the chaotic process works. The recent impact witnessed by Spitzer may be a sign of similar terrestrial planet building. It is about 35 million years old, the same age our young sun was when its rocky planets were finally assembled via massive collisions - including the giant impact on proto-Earth that led to the formation of the moon. NGC 2547-ID8 is a sun-like star located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vela. They say the smashup took place in the star's 'terrestrial zone,' the region around stars where rocky planets like Earth take shape.

Scientists think the dust was kicked up by a massive collision between two large asteroids. Spitzer's infrared vision detected a huge eruption around the star NGC 2547-ID8 between August 20.

This artist's conception shows one such smash-up, the evidence for which was collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Sometimes the colliding bodies are ground to dust, and sometimes they stick together to ultimately form larger, mature planets. Planets, including those like our own Earth, form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, called proto-planets.

Instal the new Super Smash Asteroids