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The most dramatic phases of terrestrial planet formation are thought to beoligarchic and chaotic growth, on timescales of up to 100-200 Myr, when violentimpacts occur between large planetesimals of sizes up to proto-planets. Suchevents are marked by the production of large amounts of debris as has beenobserved in some exceptionally bright and young debris disks (termed extremedebris disks). Here we report five years of Spitzer measurements of suchsystems around two young solar-type stars: ID8 and P1121. The short-term(weekly to monthly) and long-term (yearly) disk variability is consistent withthe aftermaths of large impacts involving large asteroid-size bodies. Wedemonstrate that an impact-produced clump of optically thick dust, under theinfluence of the dynamical and viewing geometry effects, can produce short-termmodulation in the disk light curves. The long-term disk flux variation isrelated to the collisional evolution within the impact-produced fragments oncereleased into a circumstellar orbit. The time-variable behavior observed in theP1121 system is consistent with a hypervelocity impact prior to 2012 thatproduced vapor condensates as the dominant impact product. Two distinctshort-term modulations in the ID8 system argue for two violent impacts atdifferent times and locations. Its long-term variation is consistent with thecollisional evolution of two different populations of impact-produced debrisdominated by either vapor condensates or escaping boulders. The bright,variable emission from the dust produced in large impacts from extreme debrisdisks provides a unique opportunity to study violent events during the era ofterrestrial planet formation.

Extreme Debris Disk Variability -- Exploring the Diverse Outcomes of Large Asteroid Impacts During the Era of Terrestrial Planet Formation