A team of astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA) has discovered a large, rocky object disintegrating in its transit around a distant white dwarf star. The planet and probably six or more other large rocky bodies would also be being pulverized by this ‘Death Star’ . The study has been published in the journal Nature .
The scientists used data from the Kepler space observatory (which continuously monitors stars to study the brightness that occurs when an orbiting object crosses in front of them) and various ground-based telescopes to confirm the finding: the white dwarf in question is the star WD 1145 + 017 and is orbited by at least one planet.
The atmospheres of white dwarfs contain elements even heavier than helium which, despite the fact that in theory they should sink towards the interior of the star, it remains in the atmosphere, being able to come from fragmented rocky bodies such as the phenomenon that they have managed to locate. astronomers.
Analysis of the data from the Kepler observatory has determined that it has a dusty debris disk and its spectrum shows lines of heavy elements such as magnesium, aluminum and silicon . However, how these rocky objects got to the white dwarf is not clear. Experts believe that most likely the orbit of another planet became unstable and caused its approach to the star.
“ This is something no human has seen before. We are seeing how a solar system is destroyed ”, explains Andrew Vanderburg, leader of the study. And it is the first time that we see a planetary object in transit through a white dwarf. In the next few million years this entire system will end its days as a layer of fine metal dust on top of a white dwarf.
