Afterglow of cataclysmic collision between two planets seen for first time

An artist’s impression of the huge, glowing planetary body produced by a planetary collision. Photograph: Mark Garlick/University of Bristol/PA

The warm afterglow of a worlds-shattering collision between two massive planets has been seen for the first time after astronomers trained their telescopes on a distant sun-like star.

The cataclysmic event is believed to have destroyed a pair of ice giant planets that slammed into one another to produce a shower of debris and a hot, spinning object potentially hundreds of times the size of Earth.