Scientists have identified WDJ2147-4035 as the oldest white dwarf contaminated by the mineral (Image Source: ANI)
Astronomers led by the University of Warwick have discovered the oldest star in the Milky Way. The oldest rocky and icy planetary systems collect debris from orbiting planets.
The researchers concluded that the faint white dwarf 90 light-years from Earth and the rest of the orbiting planetary system is more than 10 billion years old after publishing their findings in the Royal Astronomical Society’s monthly notice on November 5. ANI reports.
Most stars, including those similar to our Sun, will eventually turn into white dwarfs. A star that has used up all of its fuel, has lost its outer layer, and is currently shrinking and cooling is known as a white dwarf. Any orbiting planet would be disturbed and, under some circumstances, disintegrate in the process and debris would be left behind to collect on the white dwarf’s surface.
Two strange white dwarfs identified by the European Space Agency’s GAIA space observatory were designed for this study by a team of astronomers led by the University of Warwick.
Most stars, including stars like the Sun, will eventually collapse into white dwarfs. A white dwarf is a star that has used up all of its fuel, has lost all of its outer layers, and is currently shrinking and cooling. Any orbiting planet would be disturbed and possibly destroyed in the process and debris left on the surface of the white dwarf to be collected.
The European Space Agency’s GAIA space observatory has discovered two strange white dwarfs, which a team of astronomers led by the University of Warwick simulated for this study. Both stars are polluted with planetary material. One has been identified as a striking blue, while the other is a more common shade of red.
By analyzing starlight at different wavelengths, spectroscopy can determine the elements and their concentrations in the stellar atmosphere when these elements absorb light at certain wavelengths. Scientists named WDJ2147-4035 the oldest mineral-contaminated white dwarf identified to date by analyzing the star’s spectrum and finding the presence of the minerals sodium, lithium and potassium, as well as speculatively detecting carbon buildup in the star.
WDJ1922 + 0233, the second “blue” star, is slightly smaller than WDJ2147-4035 and is contaminated by planetary material with a composition close to the Earth’s continental crust. The science team concluded that it is the strange atmosphere of 0233 helium and hydrogen WDJ1922 + that gives it its unusual blue color despite the cold surface temperature.
The debris of the red star WDJ2147-4035, detected in its almost pure helium-like, high-gravity atmosphere, comes from an ancient planetary system that tolerates the transformation of stars into white dwarfs, leading astronomers to claim that it is the planet most ancient. . A system around a white dwarf found in the Milky Way.
Lead author Abigail Elms, a PhD student in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, said: “These metal-polluted stars show that the Earth is not unique, there are other planetary systems with similar planetary bodies. 97% of all. stars will become white dwarfs and are present everywhere in the universe and it is very important to understand them, especially very cold stars.Cold white dwarfs are made up of the oldest stars in our galaxy and provide information on the formation and the evolution of planetary systems around the oldest stars of the Milky Way “.
“We have found the oldest stellar remains in the Milky Way that have ever been contaminated by an Earth-like planet. It is amazing to think that this happened on a scale of ten billion years and that these planets died before Earth was formed. “.
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