Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Inbox Astronomy: Dead Star Caught Ripping Up Planetary System

INBOX ASTRONOMY

Dead Star Caught Ripping Up Planetary System

Release date: Wednesday, June 15, 2022 5:15:00 PM EDT

Dead Star Caught Ripping Up Planetary System



Both Rocky and Icy Bodies Were Identified Among the Debris on the Surface of a White Dwarf Star

"Bring out your dead!" rings in the air in the classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," a merry parallel to what's happening around a white dwarf star in a nearby planetary system. The dead star is "ringing" its own bell, calling out to the "dead" to collect at its footsteps. The white dwarf is all that remains after a Sun-like star has exhausted its nuclear fuel and expelled most of its outer material – decimating objects in the planetary system that orbit it. What's left is a band of players with unpredictable orbits that – despite protests that they "aren't dead yet!" – will ultimately be captured by the central star.

How do we know? The bodies consumed by the star leave telltale "fingerprints" – caught by the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories – on its surface. The spectral evidence shows that the white dwarf is siphoning off both rocky-metallic and icy material – debris from both its system's inner and outer reaches. Uncovering evidence of icy bodies is intriguing, since it implies that a "water reservoir" might be common on the edges of planetary systems, improving the chances for the emergence of life as we know it.



Find additional articles, images, and videos at HubbleSite.org



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