(CNN) — Astronomers have made a fascinating discovery that could shed light on the fate of planetary systems, including our own, as stars reach the end of their life cycles. A team of researchers observed a dead star, known as a white dwarf, located about 63 light-years from Earth and discovered a metallic scar on the star’s surface.
The white dwarf, named WD 0816-310, was found to have a concentration of metals on its surface, believed to have come from a fragment of a planet as large as, or possibly larger than, the asteroid Vesta. This finding suggests that even in its final stages, a star can continue to interact with the planetary objects in its system.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Stefano Bagnulo, from the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland, described the role of the star’s magnetic field in this process, stating that the scar was formed due to the star attracting metals towards it. The team used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to make these observations, with the help of the FORS2 instrument, which allowed them to track the changes in the metal’s concentration as the star rotated.
Previous studies of white dwarfs have shown surfaces scattered with metals, potentially from planets or asteroids that came too close to the star. However, WD 0816-310 presents a unique scenario where the magnetic field of the star played a significant role in concentrating the metals on its surface.
This discovery highlights the dynamic nature of planetary systems and the interactions between stars and their orbiting objects, providing insights into what could happen to our own solar system as the Sun transitions into a white dwarf in about 5 billion years. The study’s authors believe that their findings could have implications for understanding the evolution of planetary systems throughout the universe.