There is a lot of mystery in space. Astronomers have found an ancient solar system that is different from our home.
An over 10 billion-year old white dwarf star is surrounded by a graveyard of broken apart chunks of planets. The stars has pulled in debris. This solar system is different. It's teems with elements like magnesium and zinc. No planet in our solar system has such a composition.
Why was the ancient solar system different from the modern one? It became rich in rare materials.
Abbigail Elms is a PhD student at the University of Warwick who is researching white dwarfs. The research was published in a scientific journal.
The solar system is older. The white dwarf died before the sun and Earth were born. The chunks of former planets around WDJ2147-4035 are the oldest planetesimals that have ever been found in our galaxy.
Calculating what this archaic solar system was made of is difficult.
The white dwarf was discovered using an observatory in space called Gaia. There are stars and galaxies in the universe. After spotting these white dwarfs, the researchers turned to an instrument called the "X-Shooter," located at a high elevation inChile, to detect what is and isn't present in the stars' atmospheres. In WDJ2147-4035, they found that some chemicals had gotten pulled in by gravity and accumulated around the ancient star. The rocky remains of planets supplied the other unique elements because white dwarfs are made of hydrogen or helium.
An artist's conception of chunks of planets (planetesimals) orbiting white dwarf stars. Credit: University of Warwick / Mark Garlick
The other white dwarf was vastly different than the one they found. It's not new. The star pulled in debris that was similar to Earth's rocky surface. The other solar system shows that there are other solar systems out there that are similar to Earth's.
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Graveyards of former planets are found in the two solar systems. White dwarfs are 95 percent of stars. They grow into giant giants at the end of their lives. Our sun will cover planets like Mercury and Venus before it sheds its outer layers. There are broken apart planets and moons left by the red giants. A white dwarf will be the remnant star.
Our fate is this. Not for a long period of time.
The sun will become a white dwarf in 5 billion years.
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