Dust of Earth-like dead planets found in white atmospheres

The dust of Earth-like dead planets has been seen in the atmosphere of a nearby four-footed white dwarf, the heart of a dead star resembling our solar system.

A team from the University of Warwick discovered outdoor layers containing up to 300,000 gigatonnes of rocky debris, which contains up to 60 gigatonnes of lithium and 3,000 gigatonnes of potassium.

Researchers also found traces of sodium and calcium, which show that the remains of dead planets had crusts similar to those found on Earth and Mars.

Not only is the discovery the first time astronauts have seen planetary crusts in the atmosphere of white dwarfs, but it also reveals that solar systems like ours have been around for billions of years.

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White dwarfs form after stars, like our own sun, consume their nuclear fuel.

Near the end of its nuclear firing, the star ejaculates most of its outer material, forming a planetary nebula, which is a shell of gas and dust.

Here the star becomes a red giant and finally, a white dwarf.

However, during the process, the star can destroy anything and everything around it.

The University of Warwick-led team was analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia telescope of more than 1,000 nearby white stars when they encountered an unusual signal from one particular white dwarf .

Using spectroscopy, the team analyzed the light from each star at different waves.

Let’s find elements that may be crying in the star’s atmosphere.

Scientists also studied the 30,000 white glasses from the Sloan Digital Sky Study published over the past 20 years.

The signal matched a lithium wave and the astronomers soon discovered three more white dwarfs with the same signal, and potassium in the atmosphere was also seen.

The four white dwarfs are thought to have burned their fuel up to 10 billion years ago and may be among the oldest white dwarfs created in our galaxy.

By comparing the amounts of lithium and potassium with the other elements they found – sodium and calcium – they found that the ratio of elements matched the chemical combination of the crust of rocky planets as the Earth and Mars, if these crusts and were vaporized and mixed within gas stars outside the star for 2 million years.

Lead author Dr Mark Hollands from the University of Warwick ‘s Department of Physics said: “In the past, we’ve seen all sorts of things like clothing and materials, but we haven’t found any definitive bark. planet. ‘

‘Lithium and potassium are good indicators of skin products, they are not present in high concentrations in the gut or in the heart.’

‘Now that we know what chemical signature to look for in order to find these elements, we have the opportunity to look at a large number of white terriers and more of these. lorg. Then we can look at the spread of that signature and see how often we find these planetary crusts and how that compares to our prediction. ‘

The amount of crustal material found orbiting the four stars is about the same mass as asteroids seen in our own Solar System.

This information led astronomers to suggest that the vaporized crusts broke from a planet and not the remains of an entire planet.

‘As we understand it, the formation of a rocky planet occurs in the same way in different planetary systems,’ said Dr. Holland.

Initially, they are formed from the manufacture of star-like materials, but over time these materials separate and different chemical substances occur in different parts of the planets. ‘

‘We can see at some point that these things have been differentiated, where the combination is different from the starting position of the star.’

‘Most normal stars are now understood to be the planets of the solar harbor, but now there is an opportunity to look at the frequency of different types of materials as well.’