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From Gizmodo:
[...] an enormous ring of debris, 237 light years away from Earth, orbiting a long-studied, young star called HR 4796A. While the bright white ring of debris may be the most visually striking part of the image, astronomers are more excited about what's around it: the much larger, less-concentrated area of dust around it.
[...] Researchers aren't quite sure how the system got its shape, but perhaps the nearby companion star, HR 4796B, is influencing the shape with its gravitational pull. It's not easy understanding these things, given all the possible influencing factors, according to a Hubble press release.
Hubble has observed few systems like HR 4796A, but the scientists predict that these debris ring might be relatively common in younger stars, according to the paper. HR 4796 is a mere 8 million years old—our sun is around 4.5 billion years. And understanding these structures could help understand how stars evolve, and even how planets might form around these young stars. Our own solar system probably formed from a dust disk, too, after all.
The HR 4796A Debris System: Discovery of Extensive Exo-ring Dust Material (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aaa3f3) (DX)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:01PM
Actually, observing solar disks like this is the key to understanding the development of solar systems with planets that have, in the parlance of our times, "cleared the neighborhood". And this would help us in understanding whether our own solar system is an average, run-of-the-mill solar system, or if gas giant planets are usually closer to their star, suggesting that something unique or at least rare happened around Sol. It may be that Jupiter was thrown wide, allowing for rocky planets to exist in the Goldilocks zone, and protecting them from asteroids, comets, and other such remnants of the stellar disk our system evolved from.
(Sorry, could not help myself, thought we should have at least one on topic comment, to ward of the alt-right's alt-science.)