A Newly Discovered Trail of Cosmic Debris Illustrates How the End of the Solar System Could Look
Source: Wired ·
A dying star 1,600 light-years from Earth is surrounded by two rings of gas and dust that astronomers believe are the remnants of the planetary bodies it once hosted.
From the source
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered a debris disk around a white dwarf , consisting of the remnants of the solar system that once orbited it. For researchers, these structures could offer a clue as to what the end of our solar system will look like once the sun runs out of fuel . The white dwarf J1328−1450 is located about 1,600 light-years from Earth. Astronomers were already aware of it thanks to star-mapping catalogs, but new observations taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (yes, that’s its real name) revealed that it is surrounded by a disk of debris with an unusual structure: Two distinct rings of gas separated by a gap. According to the observatory , this disk of material is likely the remnant of the planetary system that once orbited J1328−1450. As it passed through a red giant phase and subsequently became a white dwarf, the star may have destroyed some of its planets and left other rocky bodies exposed to an extreme environment. Some of…
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