In another star system, a Pluto-like world survived until the bitter end

For the first time, astronomers observed something like a Pluto Collided with a white dwarfThe corpse caught up in a medium -sized star.

The white dwarf, nicknamed WD 1647 + 375, is around 260 light years far from the earth in space. Despite its distance, the kingdom of this dead star could have had striking similarities with our own solar system, including something similar to a kuiper belt, a past disc of Neptune de comets and frozen dwarf planetsAccording to new research.

NasaThe Hubble space telescope made the discovery by playing the role of a crime scene detective. By studying the Material falling on the white dwarfScientists could reconstruct the types of planets and other cosmic objects – their ingredients, sizes and compositions – probably orbit of the star.

Put another way: the bin around a white dwarf spent a lot on the researchers on the exoplanets A star had once.

“I was absolutely delighted that we have now identified a system that looks like objects in the icy external edges of our solar system,” said Boris Gänsicke, principal researcher of the Hubble program and researcher at the University of Warwick, in a declaration. “The measurement of the composition of an exo-plyuto is an important contribution to our understanding of the formation and the evolution of these bodies.”

THE New discoveries Suggesting frozen bodies on the outskirts of a planetary system can survive for a long time after its star lacked fuel. This can even give an overview of what will come from our own solar system after the sun deceased. The results were published in the Monthly opinion from the Royal Astronomical Society.

Normally, when a medium -sized star dies, it explodes the material of the material in its system. The discovery of Hubble was surprising for astronomers, because most would predict that the distant icy worlds were destroyed or hunted long before the star reaches the scene of the White Dwarf.

But in this case, Hubble observed the debris around the white dwarf in an ultraviolet light and saw the fingerprints of chemical carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and water ice – similar to the mixture of elements found on Pluto. Because white dwarfs have simple atmospheres – mainly Hydrogen and helium – The team knew that heavier elements detected there were to come from something else to crash into the dead star, according to the newspaper.

“We know that the surface of Pluto is covered with nitrogen,” said Snehalata Sahu, an astronomer from the University of Warwick and the first author of the newspaper, in a press release. “We think the white dwarf [accumulated] Fragments of the crust and the mantle of a dwarf planet. “”

However, researchers cannot exclude another origin. Based on the chemical composition alone, they cannot determine whether the Pluto type object was native to the star system or an interstellar visitor, a bit like the comet 3i / Atlas Degrement of our solar system now.

But if this object was a dwarf planet far from the outskirts of its planetary system, how has it been so close to the star?

As a star similar to the sun ages, it swells in a red giant before becoming a white dwarf, doing so much that Scorches or engulf interior planets. Around the sun, the first victims should be Mercury and Venus, followed by the earth.

The Kuiper belt is a disc of comets, dwarf planets and other frozen bodies outside the Neptune orbit in our solar system.
Credit: NASA infographic

As the star slips into a white dwarf, Survivors are the giant worlds of gas and ice in the outer parts. This is where things become chaotic. In the narrowed state of the dead star, it has much less mass – and less severity – to hold everything in place. The old stable orbits for planets and space rocks could weaken, and all the remaining giant planets could push small iced worlds in extreme orbits of oval shape, ultimately bringing them near the white dwarf.

This Pluto world has probably spent billions of years far from the star, remaining solid frozen. It may be the way he remained intact. But when he approached the white dwarf, he was shredded in a brief but violent episode.

Not only has the discovery highlighted what is happening to planetary systems when their stars set up, but also scientists to bring together the way water and other ingredients move between worlds.

Many astronomers believe that the earth oceans formed from comets and asteroids Scan the planet. While some scientists believe that the primitive land avoided gases 4.5 billion years ago, creating an atmosphere that allowed the rain to fall in common, others think that the largest water bodies have been formed because the space rocks of the external solar system have brought water – or at least a part.

Because the research team has found a lot of water ice – representing around 64% of Pluto type fragments – the study is linked to more important mysteries on how ice objects survive and may be offering water in space, the researchers said.

“If an extraterrestrial observer looks at our solar system in the distant future,” said Sahu, “they could see the same kind of remains that we see today around this white dwarf.”