While studying HD 53143— a roughly billion-year-old Sun-like star— in millimeter-wavelengths for the first time, scientists discovered that the star’s debris disk is highly eccentric. Unlike ring-shaped debris disks, in which the star sits in the center, HD 53143 is located at one foci of an elliptical-shaped disk, and is shown as the unresolved dot below and left of center. Scientists believe a second unresolved dot in the north of this image to be a planet that is perturbing and shaping the debris disk.

Composite image of the HD 53143 star system. Shown in orange/red, millimeter-wavelength data from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), reveal a previously unobserved eccentric debris disk orbiting HD 53143 in the form of an ellipse. Am unresolved dot shows the star off-center near the southern foci of the disk, while a second unresolved dot to the north indicates the potential presence of a planet. Optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is shown in blue and white; a coronagraphic mask blocks out the starlight, allowing researchers to see what’s happening in the region surrounding HD 53143.

HD 53143 is located in the Carina constellation, roughly 59.8 light-years from Earth.