October 22, 2015

  • White dwarf upsets planetary system, consumes evidence

    White Dwarfimage by Mark A. Garlick

    BAD BREAK UP As many as six rocky worlds (or possibly more) are disintegrating around the core of a dead star (illustrated).
    1:42pm, October 21, 2015

    At least one poor planet — or possibly over half a dozen — is becoming a snack for the core of a dead star. A white dwarf dubbed WD 1145+017, in the constellation Virgo, hosts an orbiting trail of rocky debris, researchers report in the Oct. 22 Nature. The detritus might be all that remains of a dying solar system.

    The debris cloud, detected by the Kepler space telescope, gave itself away by repeatedly blocking some starlight. Researchers also observed traces of heavy elements such as aluminum, silicon and nickel on the white dwarf. Ordinarily these would sink into the star quickly and disappear, so the atoms probably are raining down on the white dwarf as the planets break apart. The presence of heavy elements in this and other white dwarfs suggests these dead stars periodically enjoy a planetary snack.

     

Comments (46)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment