A planetary system like solar system has a star or sun that is the parent or center of the planetary system. When this star dies, the planets around it will begin to be torn apart and eaten by the star.
This planet-eating phenomenon is not entirely foreign to white dwarfs, the phase of the star at the end of its life.
Reported from Science Alert, a star named G238-44 is referred to as a glutton. For the first time, astronomers have seen one of these stars engulf the inner and outer material of its planetary system at the same time, even in its most distant reaches.
However, a planet orbiting a star is likely to be quite difficult to be devoured by a white dwarf like G238-44 did.
In the atmosphere of G238-44, astronomers detected traces of elements that suggest the star has recently accumulated rocky and metallic material, such as asteroids in the inner solar system, as well as icy material such as frozen bodies that can be found in the Kuiper Belt atmosphere. outside the Solar System.
“We’ve never seen these two types of material coalesce into a white dwarf at the same time,” said physicist and astronomer Ted Johnson of the University of California Los Angeles.
“By studying these white dwarfs, we hope to gain a better understanding of the intact planetary system.”
Reported Techno BlenderA white dwarf is the phase that occurs when an ordinary star up to eight times the mass of the Sun reaches the end of its life.
This phase occurs when a star runs out of material for fusion reactions, it expands to the size of a red giant before releasing material on the outside because it is unable to bind to the star’s core.
Then all that’s left is the dense core of the star that shines brightly with the light from the remnants of that energy.
Since the other planetary systems detected to date appear to be very different from the Solar System, investigating the contents of planets outside the Solar System that are devoured by white dwarfs can help scientists determine whether the interior of the exoplanet differs from the interior of our Solar System.
(lom/fea)
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