Ancient white dwarf hosts planetary graveyard

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THE DEATH THROES of stars can quite literally be the end of the world for their planets, as they are vaporised or flung onto infalling orbits. Now, scientists report in the December Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society an analysis of one of the oldest of these planetary graveyards: a red-hued white dwarf about 91 light-years away that's polluted with planetary debris. The European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft first identified this white dwarf, WDJ2147-4035, as having unusual properties. Abbigail Elms (University of Warwick, UK) analysed this and another unusual one, WDJ1922+0233, which is bluer and a bit farther away at 128 light-years. Both stellar remnants were already known to be contaminated and cool. To take a closer look at both of the white dwarfs’ composition and temperature, Elms and colleagues analysed…

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Australian Sky & Telescope (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2023

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