{"id":46170,"date":"2024-04-10T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=46170"},"modified":"2024-04-10T13:14:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:14:10","slug":"white-dwarf-research-reveals-how-solar-system-might-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/white-dwarf-research-reveals-how-solar-system-might-die\/46170\/","title":{"rendered":"White dwarf research reveals how the solar system might die"},"content":{"rendered":"
The team have helped to answer what happens to planetary systems, like our solar system, when their host stars become white dwarfs.<\/p>\n
White dwarfs are the end state of stars when they have burned all their fuel. They can offer insight into different aspects of star formation<\/a> and evolution.<\/p>\n In the study, the team examined the fate of asteroids, moons, and planets that pass close to the white dwarfs by analysing transits \u2013 dips in the brightness of stars caused by objects passing in front of them.<\/p>\n Unlike the predictable transits caused by orbiting planets around stars, transits caused by debris are oddly shaped and disorderly. This suggests the fate of these bodies to be extremely violent.<\/p>\n Dr Amornrat Aungwerojwit of Naresuan University, who led the study, said: \u201cPrevious research had shown that when asteroids, moons and planets get close to white dwarfs, the huge gravity of these stars rips these small planetary bodies into smaller and smaller pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n Collisions between these pieces grind them into dust, which finally falls into the white dwarf. This allows the researchers to determine what type of material the original planetary bodies were made from.<\/p>\n