(ORDO NEWS) — For the first time, astronomers have been able to watch a dead planet crash into a dead star. It is quite possible that such a scenario awaits the planets of our solar system, including the Earth, in 7 billion years.
Using the Chandra X-ray telescope, the authors of the new study focused on analyzing a white dwarf called G29-38. It is located about 45 light years away in the constellation Pisces.
Scientists have noticed signs of powerful explosions emanating from the surface of the dwarf. They assumed that the signals were due to some kind of collision, and they were right, writes Live Science.
A planetary body collided with a white dwarf. As a result of the collision, the plasma on the surface of the dead star heated up to over 1 million degrees Celsius.
This is the first direct evidence that white dwarfs are “sucking up and devouring” the rocky remnants of planets that once orbited them.
X-ray flares were recorded billions of years after the formation of the planetary system G29-38. This suggests that a similar fate may await the Earth as our Sun begins its inevitable final act of existence. It will happen in billions of years.
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