A cataclysmic crash of two giant exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - left behind the cloud and one single molten core, which is still orbiting the star. Upon close investigation, researchers found that, just before this dip, the star displayed a sudden spike in infrared luminosity, which lasted for 1,000 days. Further investigation revealed that the culprit behind both the spike in luminosity and the eclipse was a giant, glowing cloud of gas and dust. The researchers think that a violent cosmic collision between two exoplanets, one of which likely contained ice. Scientists believe that two giant exoplanets anywhere from several to tens of Earth masses crashed into one another, creating both the infrared spike and the cloud.
