Astronomers recently discovered an orbiting fragment of a dead, shattered planet. This occurred while peering deep into a distant star, in the outer space. This could probably be a sample of planet Earth’s final destiny.
Scientists said that they had discovered one of the first small planet fragments in orbit around a dead white dwarf star, in a new study released on Thursday. The study revealed a finding “that sheds light into the twilight years of planetary systems”.
According to researchers and Live Science, it is remarkable to see any piece of a planet, however small, surviving so close to the incredibly strong gravity of a white dwarf.
The chunk could be uncommonly thick and no larger than 250 miles in diameter to avoid being torn apart by the star’s gravitational forces. It orbits around the white dwarf every two hours, said the study.
The dead star and the planet are within our own Milky Way galaxy, about 410 light years away from us. Their fate gives us a rational depiction of our solar system’s future, Science magazine said. It is considered that when the sun bulges into a red giant, it will consume Mercury, Venus, and Earth. It will then shrink down to a dead white dwarf, similar to the one just discovered.
Space.com said that the huge mass of the newly found planet is expected to be a portion of a world destroyed during the star’s death throes. The lump may even be a part from the centre of the destroyed planet.
Science reported that though it was not a beautiful thought, but we do have about 6 billion years to ponder over our fate.
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