A Dead Star Has Been Caught Ripping Apart Its Planetary System

What will happen to the planets when a star dies? The planets are being torn apart and eaten by the star if it is a white dwarf 86 light years away.

White dwarfs are not uncommon. Astronomers have seen one of these stars swallowing material from both the inner and outer reaches of its planetary system at the same time, in the most far-reaching display of stellar filial cannibalism observed to date

Astronomers have found traces of elements that are metallic and rocky, like inner Solar System asteroids, as well as material that is icy, like the frozen bodies that can be found in the outer Solar System.

Ted Johnson is a physicist and astronomer at the University of California Los Angeles. We want to gain a better understanding of planetary systems that are still intact by studying the white dwarfs.

A white dwarf is a star up to eight times the mass of the Sun that dies. When a star runs out of material, it puffs up to red giant size and collapses under the weight of gravity to form a dense object. The white dwarf is shown.

Astronomers have been finding evidence to suggest that some parts of planetary systems can actually be.

White dwarfs have been seen with planets. The study of the remains of white dwarf exoplanets is based on the presence of heavy elements in the atmosphere.

White dwarfs are so dense that heavy elements should sink out of view quickly, which means any heavy pollution element needs to have been deposited recently.

We have an indirect probe into exoplanetary interiors. We know what Earth is made of, and we're pretty sure we understand other Solar System planets' composition to some degree, but we can't probe the way we can Earth, or other planets in the Solar System.

It is possible to determine whether exoplanetary interiors are different to those of the Solar System by probing the guts of exoplanets. We are going back to G238-44.

The diagram shows what scientists think is going on. Joseph Olmsted is aSTScI.

The pollution in this white dwarf's atmosphere is unlike anything seen before. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, Silicon, sulfur, calcium, and iron were detected.

The team said that the iron and nitrogen abundances were high, suggesting that a body with a differentiated iron core may be present.

The best fit for our data was a mix of Mercury-like material and comet-like material which is made up of ice and dust. Nitrogen ice and iron metal suggest vastly different conditions of planetary formation. There is only one known solar system object with both.

The results show that the ingredients for making a world might not be as rare as first thought. The elements vital for life are thought to have been created by asteroid bombardment. Nitrogen-rich material could be a sign that frozen elements are common.

Benjamin Zuckerman is a physicist and astronomer at UCLA.

The first example we've found among studies of hundreds of white dwarfs is the abundance of elements we see on this white dwarf.

When the Sun becomes a white dwarf in about 5 billion years, aliens will expect to see something like that. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter could survive even if the outer Solar System objects are destroyed by the white dwarfs.

The team presented their research at the meeting.