A dying star, also known as a white dwarf, has killed off the planets it surrounds! In terms of perspective, think of our Sun and its planets!
Scientists reveal that a dying star has ripped through an entire planetary system. Named G238-44, this white dwarf is disrupting the entire planetary system by consuming icy and rocky metallic material. This cosmic phenomenon known as cannibalism has been observed for the first time with the help of archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories. Astronomers have gathered findings based on analysis of the material collected by the white dwarf’s atmosphere. A white dwarf is usually very dense and about the size of a planet. It is formed when a low-mass star that has exhausted most of its nuclear fuel expands and then all that’s left is a white dwarf.
“We’ve never seen both types of objects accumulate into a white dwarf at the same time,” said Ted Johnson, study leader and a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in a press statement. at the time. By studying these white dwarfs, we hope to gain a better understanding of planetary systems that are still intact.”
Benjamin Zuckerman, co-author of the study, said: “Life as we know it requires a rocky planet covered in a variety of elements such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. He added that the abundance of elements seen on the white dwarf appears to be a rock as well as a volatile mother body. He calls it “the first example we’ve found among studies of hundreds of white dwarfs.”
The discovery also suggests that our Sun could go through this process and become a red giant before devouring neighboring planets in about 5 billion years. It will lose its outer layers, forming a “nebula”. Only a pitiful shell of its former glory will remain – a white dwarf.
