Snehalata Sahu and Boris Gänsicke, researchers at the University of Warwick, have made a new discovery thanks to information provided by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. According to the data, they reveal that a white dwarf is destroying an exo-Pluto, a dwarf planet similar to the Kuiper Belt in our solar system. This new discovery opens up a new avenue for future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope. Read on to learn more.
Fragments of a Pluto-like object
In our close stellar neighborhood, a burned-out star is snacking on a fragment of a Pluto-like object. With its unusual ultraviolet ability, only NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope might be able to identify that this meal is taking place. In addition, the stellar remnant is a white dwarf close to the half the mass of our Sun, but that is densely packed into a body almost to the size of Earth.
Investigators have in mind that the dwarf’s immense gravity pulled in and tore apart an icy Pluto analog coming from the system’s own version of the Kuiper Belt, an icy ring of debris that encircles our solar system. The achievements were reported on September 18 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The investigators could stablish this carnage by studying the chemical composition of the doomed object as its pieces fell onto the white dwarf. In specific, they discovered “volatiles” — substances with low boiling points — including carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, and a high oxygen content that refers to the strong presence of water.
“We were surprised,” explained Snehalata Sahu of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Sahu led the data analysis of a Hubble survey of white dwarfs.
“We did not expect to find water or other icy content. This is because the comets and Kuiper Belt-like objects are thrown out of their planetary systems early, as their stars evolve into white dwarfs. But here, we are detecting this very volatile-rich material. This is surprising for astronomers studying white dwarfs as well as exoplanets, planets outside our solar system.”
Just by using Hubble Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
Using Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the research group found that the fragments were composed of 64 percent water ice. The information that they detected so much ice implied that the pieces werebelonged to a very massive object that formed far out in the star system’s icy Kuiper Belt analog. By just using Hubble information, scientists calculated that the object was bigger than usual comets and may be a fragment of an exo-Pluto. They also underlined that a large fraction of nitrogen – the highest ever detected in white dwarf debris systems.
“We know that Pluto’s surface is covered with nitrogen ices,” said Sahu. “We think that the white dwarf accreted fragments of the crust and mantle of a dwarf planet.”
Accretion of these volatile-rich objects by white dwarfs is very hard to find out in visible light. These volatile elements can just be notice with Hubble’s special ultraviolet light sensitivity. In optical light, the white dwarf could appear ordinary. About 260 light-years away, the white dwarf is a almost close cosmic neighbor. Back in the past, when it was a Sun-like star, it would have been awaited to host planets and an analog to our Kuiper Belt.
Close tob seeing our Sun in future
Billions of years from out time, by the time our Sun burns out and collapses to a white dwarf, Kuiper Belt objects will be pulled in by the stellar remnant’s immense gravity.
“These planetesimals will then be disrupted and accreted,” said Sahu. “If an alien observer looks into our solar system in the far future, they might see the same kind of remains we see today around this white dwarf.”
The group hopes to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to find out molecular characteristic of volatiles such as water vapor and carbonates by looking at this white dwarf in infrared light. By further studying white dwarfs, scientists can better comprehend the frequency and composition of these volatile-rich accretion happenings.
Sahu is, in addition, studying the recent discovery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. She is eager to knoe more about its chemical composition, in specific its fraction of water.
“These types of studies will help us learn more about planet formation. They can also help us understand how water is delivered to rocky planets,” said Sahu.
