时间:2025-04-05 06:57:39 来源:网络整理编辑:時尚
Astronomers have known the fate of planets like Mercury, Venus, and Earth when their host stars are
Astronomers have known the fate of planets like Mercury, Venus, and Earth when their host stars are about to die, but never have they observed it happening in space — until now.
Using the Gemini South telescope in Chile, scientists have seen the first evidence of a bloated old star absorbing an exoplanet as it puffs out during its final death throes. The event was observed in a long, low-energy outburst — the sign of a planet skimming a star's surface.
iRobot Roomba Combo i3+ Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum and Mop—$329.99(List Price $599.99)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet—$178.99(List Price $219.99)
Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Gen With MagSafe USB-C Charging Case—$199.00(List Price $249.00)
Eero 6 Dual-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System (Router + 2 Extenders)—$149.99(List Price $199.99)
Apple Watch Series 9 (GPS, 41mm, Midnight, S/M, Sports Band)—$299.00(List Price $399.00)
In the past, astronomers have found evidence of stars that have consumed planets, sometimes by doing a sort of post-mortem autopsy on what's left of the dead star. But new research published in the journal Naturepresents the first direct evidence of star-eats-planet as it happened. The group hopes the event will provide other researchers with helpful clues to discover other stars consuming planets elsewhere in the universe.
"Our interpretation...provides evidence for a missing link in our understanding of the evolution and final fates of planetary systems," the study's authors wrote.
SEE ALSO:Spectacular Webb telescope image shows a stellar death like never beforeTweet may have been deleted
During the event approximately 12,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Aquila, the dying star, about the size of the sun, absorbed a planet up to ten times the mass of Jupiter, according to the study.
"Our interpretation … provides evidence for a missing link in our understanding of the evolution and final fates of planetary systems."
Unlike giant stars that explode into a supernova and collapse into a black hole, a medium star like the sun suffers a more tortured end by dying slowly. A so-called "planetary nebula" — a confusing misnomer because stars cause them, not planets — is a phenomenon made from the molted layers of an elderly star. Such spectacular clouds of gas and dust occur when a star withers away as it loses nuclear fuel.
What remains of the star's core grows cold. Then, the light goes out.
"For decades, we’ve been able to see the before and after," said Kishalay De, an MIT researcher and the lead author, in a university news release. "Before, when the planets are still orbiting very close to their star, and after, when a planet has already been engulfed, and the star is giant. What we were missing was catching the star in the act, where you have a planet undergoing this fate in real-time. That’s what makes this discovery really exciting."
Astronomers expect this is the future of the sun in about 5 billion years.
Want more scienceand tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newslettertoday.
It would be impossible to watch a single star go through its entire lifecycle for obvious reasons: That would take billions of years, said Paul Sutter, a professor at Stony Brook University and author of How to Die in Space, in an interview with Mashable last year. But experts have been able to predict such a grotesque end for a planet by studying many stars at different intervals and how they interact with their surroundings as they age.
"It's like taking a snapshot of everyone on the Earth in one moment. You can't capture one person's lifetime, but you can see people being born, you can see people playing soccer in elementary school, and you can see people getting married. You can see people dying, getting sick," said Sutter, who wasn't involved in the new study. "You can reconstruct the life cycle of a person by putting together all these separate pieces, so we have a general picture of how stars evolve and how they live."
Evidence suggests that as the sun eventually goes through this slow demise, Earth will likely face the same destiny as the planet observed by the research group.
"We're not exactly sure how big the sun will get — there is a little bit of uncertainty, in that either it will completely engulf the Earth or it will merely come up to basically the edge of our orbit," Sutter said previously. "It would incinerate the Earth anyway."
The new study confirms that when a sun-like star nears the end of its life, it expands into a red giant, 100 to 1,000 times its original size, eventually overtaking nearby planets. Such events are thought to be rare, occurring only a few times each year throughout the galaxy.
The outburst caused by the star engulfing the planet lasted about 100 days, according to the study.
"I think there's something pretty remarkable about these results that speaks to the transience of our existence," said Ryan Lau, a NOIRLab astronomer and co-author, in a statement. "After the billions of years that span the lifetime of our Solar System, our own end stages will likely conclude in a final flash that lasts only a few months."
TopicsNASA
MashReads Podcast: What makes a good summer read?2025-04-05 06:52
奇爾維爾膝蓋手術成功 切爾西冬窗有意購米蘭飛翼2025-04-05 06:33
體壇午飯:爭四狂魔阿森納歸來 重回主流豪門序列?2025-04-05 06:30
尤文願8500萬歐出售德裏赫特 拜仁藍軍領跑爭奪戰2025-04-05 06:11
Felix the cat just raised £5000 for charity because she's the hero we all need2025-04-05 05:49
滄州主帥 :停賽的球員回歸是利好 戰大連人需充分準備2025-04-05 05:45
中超保級形勢突變 津門虎重慶大連人最後一輪生死戰2025-04-05 04:53
馬德興:為何海港不欠薪廣州隊卻深陷泥潭 因為不是一種模式2025-04-05 04:47
The five guys who climbed Australia's highest mountain, in swimwear2025-04-05 04:34
張外龍 :感謝重慶隊員們一直克服困難 希望最終結果是好的2025-04-05 04:20
Dog elected for third term as mayor of Minnesota town2025-04-05 06:56
FIFA專訪唐佳麗:熱刺男足給我很多靈感 亞洲杯踢出風采2025-04-05 06:10
張外龍:感謝重慶隊員們一直克服困難 希望最終結果是好的2025-04-05 06:09
中甲南通支雲官方 :球隊主力前鋒巴西外援查加斯離隊2025-04-05 05:58
Tributes flow after death of former Singapore president S.R. Nathan2025-04-05 05:45
2021身價下降榜: 阿紮爾庫鳥最貶值 梅西跌4000萬2025-04-05 05:37
2021亞洲國家隊賽事射手榜TOP5:武磊9球位列第三2025-04-05 05:35
尤文願8500萬歐出售德裏赫特 拜仁藍軍領跑爭奪戰2025-04-05 04:41
'Rocket League' Championship Series Season 2 offers $250,000 prize pool2025-04-05 04:24
巴媒:賈爾森因欠薪已和大連人解約 土超豪門對其感興趣2025-04-05 04:21