Outer space has always kept a mystery to scientists. Recently, astronomers managed to find solar system mysterious ancient which is different from our solar system which is inside the Milky Way galaxy.
The discovery came from a researcher at the University of Warwick in England, Abbigail Elms, who saw a white dwarf star more than 10 billion years old. The star is about 90 light-years from Earth.
In research published in the Royal Astronomical Society’s scientific journal Monthly Notice, it is explained that the star has a hot core left by a dead sun-like star and is surrounded by a graveyard of planetary debris called planetesimals.
“But this solar system is unlike anything around us. It’s full of elements like lithium and potassium. Most importantly, no planet in our solar system has that composition. It’s a real mystery,” Elms said. .
Formed before the Sun and the Earth
Elms explained it solar system it’s old. This means that a defunct white dwarf or small star (called WDJ 2147-4035) and the solar system around it, formed and died before the sun and the Earth were even born.
This conclusion comes from the presence of ex-planet blocks around WDJ 2147-4035 which are the oldest planetesimals ever found in the Milky Way galaxy around white dwarfs.
How did astronomers know about this ancient solar system?
Elms and researchers discovered the white dwarf using an observatory in space called Gaia. As it orbits the sun, this distant spacecraft maps the stars and galaxies in the cosmos.
So, after spotting the white dwarf, the researchers turned to an instrument called “X-Shooter,” located on the Chilean plateau, to detect what was and wasn’t in the star’s atmosphere.
The X-Shooter itself is a very valuable type of astronomical instrument called a spectrometer.
Chemicals in stars in the ancient solar system
In the white dwarf WDJ 2147-4035, astronomers have found chemicals such as lithium, potassium and sodium that have been added to or separated by gravity and gathered around ancient stars.
While white dwarfs themselves are made of hydrogen or helium, rocky planetary remnants would provide another unique element, the researchers concluded.
However, in another white dwarf, WDJ1922+0233, the researchers found very different and mysterious features. The star is known to have attracted planetary debris similar to Earth’s rocky crust.
Full of planetary tombs
Astronomers say the solar system found through the white dwarf is littered with graves of former planets. More than 95 percent of stars, like the sun, evolve into white dwarfs.
When stars die, they transform into huge red giants, then destroy or disturb nearby objects.
“As our sun expands, it will engulf planets such as Mercury, Venus and possibly even the Earth, before shedding its outer layers. The red giant will leave behind a remnant of destroyed planets and moons. The remaining star itself will become a white dwarf star,” Elms pointed out. .
“Sun we will evolve into a white dwarf, in about 5 billion years.”
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