Planet eating white dwarfs

[robin_astro]

I was fascinated by a recent BAA webinar by Dr Amy Bonsor entitled "Planet Eating White Dwarfs" where she describes how by studying the spectrum of the white dwarf we can determine  the composition of the planets which were thrown into the star by the gravitational imbalance created after the parent sun lost its outer layers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-JOL5NVZ4I

I tracked down a couple of them which are bright enough for amateurs to take a spectrum showing clear evidence of the planetary material

https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20210831_232116_04a034fbfd0ae832

Perhaps the same fate awaits us, the only trace of our existence just a few lines in the spectrum of the remnant white dwarf which was once our Sun....   

Always look on the bright side of life !

Robin

Edited September 1, 2021 by robin_astro
typo

[Lariliss]

There are millions of nearby stars similar to the Sun. Planets accompany most sun-like stars. The orbits of many are sufficiently close that they will be engulfed when their host stars ascend the giant branch.

This study implies that a significant fraction of planetary systems undergo very dynamical evolutionary paths that can critically modify their architectures, unlike our Solar System which has preserved its planets on nearly circular orbits.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2108.12040.pdf

 

Next-generation instruments from the European Southern Observatory, such as the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectrograph Telescope (4MOST) and Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (MOONS), will be able to observe chemically inhomogeneous Sun-like pairs with more detail.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322517864_Planetary_Engulfment_in_the_Hertzsprung--Russell_Diagram

 

'Always look on the bright side of life !' - agree. And I would add, that life existence itself shows the brightness.