Astronomers have made an intriguing discovery within the vast expanse of the Milky Way galaxy: a planetary wanderer peacefully circling a white dwarf. With a mass 1.9 times that of Earth, this enigmatic planet likely housed the wonders of life in its past, lovingly encircling a vibrant celestial body.
Unfortunately, the demise of its luminous companion resulted in a cataclysmic end to all life, causing the lonely planet to drift aimlessly through the cosmic void, devoid of the gravitational embrace that once tethered it to its former starry home.
The discovery was made by a team led by astronomer Keming Zhang
The finding, which was produced by a group under the direction of University of California astronomer Keming Zhang, offers us a glimpse into the possible end of life as we know it and what would happen to Earth when the Sun dies and turns into a white dwarf. According to current research, the Sun will die in roughly a billion years.
This planet is about 4,000 light-years away from us and is located close to the galaxy’s central bulge. Using the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii, the researchers conducted research on the planet.
They discovered that the planet revolved around the hot, dense core of a dead star. It takes trillions of years for this core, also referred to as the white dwarf, to fully cool.
Earth is not eaten up by the sun
When a star’s core runs out of hydrogen fuel to fuse, it becomes a white dwarf. The red giant phase is when it becomes less stable and swells to a massive size.
The star’s outer atmosphere swells during this phase, sometimes reaching hundreds of times its original volume. It is anticipated that when our Sun reaches this stage, it will swell to such a size that it will swallow up Mars, Venus, Earth, and Mercury. The recently found planet, however, suggests that this may not be the case after all. Earth and the other planets in the solar system should be able to survive the red giant phase if that planet has. If Earth’s orbit is not widened by the sun, it could increase its chances of surviving.
Zhang in a statement said “We do not currently have a consensus whether Earth could avoid being engulfed by the red giant sun, In any case, planet Earth will only be habitable for around another billion years, at which point Earth’s oceans would be vaporized by runaway greenhouse effect—long before the risk of getting swallowed by the red giant,”
Zhang and his colleagues used a phenomena called microlensing to discover the planet. It is used to find other Earth-like worlds in the galaxy that could not otherwise be observable through a telescope. According to him, this discovery also demonstrates the technology’s potential for locating more planets of this type.
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