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Dead star & planetary bodies: astronomers spot unique disc of debris that foretells Solar System’s future
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1149393
INTRO: Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have found a rare disc of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our Solar System. Unlike in similar systems previously found, the debris — the leftovers of planets that once orbited the star — is organised in a double disc, the two parts separated by a clear gap. The disc appears to be shaped by two planetary bodies, one possibly as big as Pluto, that have survived the violent death of the star.
“We have known for some time that planets may survive beyond the transformation of their central star, but this is the first example of a complex system with a double debris disc and potentially two surviving planetesimals,” says Nicola Gentille Fusillo, astronomer at the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy, and lead author of the study published this week in Nature Astronomy. The central star of this system is the white dwarf J1328−1450, the dense and burnt-out core left behind when a star similar to our Sun ran out of fuel.
As stars like the Sun enter the final stages of their life, they expand and shed their outer layers, engulfing and destroying nearby planets. The surviving rocky bodies can break apart forming a disc around the central, dead star. However, the disc around J1328−1450 is different from those observed around other dead stars: instead of having only one ring of vaporised planetary rubble, the star is surrounded by two concentric debris rings... (MORE - details)
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Dead star & planetary bodies: astronomers spot unique disc of debris that foretells Solar System’s future
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1149393
INTRO: Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have found a rare disc of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our Solar System. Unlike in similar systems previously found, the debris — the leftovers of planets that once orbited the star — is organised in a double disc, the two parts separated by a clear gap. The disc appears to be shaped by two planetary bodies, one possibly as big as Pluto, that have survived the violent death of the star.
“We have known for some time that planets may survive beyond the transformation of their central star, but this is the first example of a complex system with a double debris disc and potentially two surviving planetesimals,” says Nicola Gentille Fusillo, astronomer at the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy, and lead author of the study published this week in Nature Astronomy. The central star of this system is the white dwarf J1328−1450, the dense and burnt-out core left behind when a star similar to our Sun ran out of fuel.
As stars like the Sun enter the final stages of their life, they expand and shed their outer layers, engulfing and destroying nearby planets. The surviving rocky bodies can break apart forming a disc around the central, dead star. However, the disc around J1328−1450 is different from those observed around other dead stars: instead of having only one ring of vaporised planetary rubble, the star is surrounded by two concentric debris rings... (MORE - details)