A White Dwarf Star Consumes Its Planetary System | NASA Goddard

A White Dwarf Star Consumes Its Planetary System | NASA Goddard

A star’s death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the white dwarf star left behind, is siphoning off debris from both the system’s inner and outer reaches. This is the first time astronomers have observed a white dwarf star consuming both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets.

Archival data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories were essential in diagnosing this case of cosmic "cannibalism." The findings help describe the violent nature of evolved planetary systems and can tell astronomers about the makeup of newly forming systems.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 

Paul Morris: Lead Producer 

Music & Sound

“Through a Computer Screen” by Raphael Olivier [SACEM] via KTSA Publishing [SACEM] and Universal Production Music

ESA Credit:

Ring of rocky debris around a white dwarf star (artist’s impression)

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Evaporating extrasolar planet, from Video (artist's impression)

Credit: ESA, Alfred Vidal-Madjar (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, France) and NASA.

Red Giant Sun

Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

Flight through our Solar System

Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

European Southern Observatory (ESO) Credit:

Comets in Solar System

Credit on screen with : ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

Duration: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Release Date: June 15, 2022

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