Tech UPTechnologyThey discover a planet orbiting a dead star

They discover a planet orbiting a dead star

Could this be an example of what our solar system would look like billions of years from now when the Sun reaches the final stages of its life?

Thanks to the Kepler Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers, including Joshua Blackman from the University of Tasmania, scientists have detected a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a white dwarf at a distance, which happens when a star runs out of fuel and dies.

“It was a very serendipitous discovery,” Blackman said.

 

Our cosmic future?

Dying stars spew out harmful radiation as they grow into a phase called the red giant and introduce turbulence into their systems that could destroy life. But there are some speculative scenarios that could preserve the habitability of white dwarf systems.

The simulations suggested that planets in a Jupiter-like orbit, around a star no bigger than eight times that of the Sun, were the most likely to remain intact.

Observations from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii allowed the Australian and New Zealand team to study the system in more detail. They found that the gas giant, named MOA2010BLG477Lb, was able to survive the death of its host star and is now orbiting much closer than it did before. The system is located about 6,500 light years distant in the direction of the center of the Milky Way.

The finding has not been easy. The weak radiation from white dwarfs makes it difficult to detect exoplanets that have survived this stellar transformation because they are literally in the dark. We have found very few around white dwarfs. And this, in particular, represents the discovery of the first known exoplanet that survived the death of its star without its orbit being altered by other moving planets.

 

“While there is a lot of evidence for rocky planetary debris orbiting white dwarfs, we have very few data points for intact planets ,” said Joshua Blackman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania and lead author of the study.

The new discoveries may provide insight into the search for alien life and the potential habitability of white dwarf systems.

And while we don’t know what for sure awaits our Sun for the next 10 billion years, astronomers have a pretty good idea. It is the fate that awaits most of the stars in our galaxy. When the hydrogen store is depleted, about 5 billion years from now, the Sun’s core will contract and collapse, and its outer layers will inflate as it evolves into a red giant. The surface of the Sun will slowly but inexorably begin to invade the solar system. When a few hundred million years pass and the Sun leaves a dense and dead core, the white dwarf, it could be that some planets are still there, only they will orbit further than before since the gravitational pull of the Sun will no longer be as strong . Mars and the gas giants are likely to survive.

The work supports the theory that more than half of white dwarfs are predicted to have similar planetary partners.

Referencia: Blackman, J.W., Beaulieu, J.P., Bennett, D.P. et al. A Jovian analogue orbiting a white dwarf star. Nature 598, 272–275 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03869-6

Slaves and Disabled: Forced Medical Test Volunteers

The main problem to carry out medical research is to have willing volunteers for it. And if they come out for free, much better. This is the story of unethical behavior in medical research.

How are lightning created?

Summer is synonymous with sun, but also with storms. Who has not contemplated one from the protection that the home gives that electrical display that is lightning?

How global warming will affect astronomy

Astronomical observations around the world will worsen in quality as a result of climate change, according to a new study.

New images of Saturn's rings in stunning detail

New images of Saturn's rings in stunning detail

NASA discovers more than 50 areas that emit exorbitant levels of greenhouse gases

NASA's 'EMIT' spectrometer locates has targeted Central Asia, the Middle East and the US among others.

More