{"id":26516,"date":"2024-02-26T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26516"},"modified":"2024-02-25T18:35:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T23:35:03","slug":"eso-cannibal-star-with-a-metal-scar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=26516","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Cannibal star with a metal scar"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Metal scar found on cannibal star<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This artist\u2019s impression shows the magnetic white dwarf WD 0816-310, where astronomers have found a scar imprinted on its surface as a result of having ingested planetary debris. When objects like planets or asteroids approach the white dwarf they get disrupted, forming a debris disc around the dead star. Some of this material can be devoured by the dwarf, leaving traces of certain chemical elements on its surface.\u00a0 Using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope, astronomers found that the signature of these chemical elements changed periodically as the star rotated, as did the magnetic field. This indicates that the magnetic fields funneled these elements onto the star, concentrating them at the magnetic poles and forming the scar seen here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, using the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope (ESO\u2019s VLT) in Chile, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for the first time \u2014 a scar imprinted on the surface of a white dwarf star. The results are published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is well known that some white dwarfs \u2014 slowly cooling embers of stars like our Sun \u2014 are cannibalising pieces of their planetary systems. Now we have discovered that the star\u2019s magnetic field plays a key role in this process, resulting in a scar on the white dwarf\u2019s surface,<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

says Stefano Bagnulo, an astronomer at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland, UK, and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n