In a cosmic first , scientists have witnessed the second that a white dwarf – the remainder of a wiz that has shed its out layers – ripped apart a comet in its vicinity . The findings were issue inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters .
Thediscoverywas made using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and NASA ’s Hubble Space Telescope . Observing the distant white dwarf 170 light - year from Earth , call WD 1425 + 540 , they find evidence that a monolithic comet had fall towards the star and been “ tidally break up ” – or torn apart .
Found in the configuration of Bootes , this white dwarf was first recorded in 1974 . It is part of a binary system with another wiz , which orbit about 2,000 astronomical units ( AU , 1 AU is the aloofness from Earth to the Sun ) away .
As for the comet , well , it was rather huge , about 100,000 times as monolithic as the famous Halley ’s Comet in our own Solar System and with a much in high spirits amount of water . It is also thought to be full-bodied in the elements all-important for life such as N , carbon , oxygen , and sulfur .
“ Nitrogen is a very important component for life as we know it , ” suppose lead source Siyi Xu of the European Southern Observatory , Germany , in astatement . “ This exceptional object is quite fertile in nitrogen , more so than any object watch in our Solar System . ”
The finding is authoritative because it lends evidence to the estimation that other worldwide systems have some of the same glacial material as our own , which may have been transported via comets to various worlds .
Up to one-half of all white dwarfs are thought to be polluted with infalling debris from asteroids into their atmosphere , although this is the first clip comet - like material has been seen . It also hints at a region like our own Kupier Belt – made up of ancient frigid stuff – around the blanched dwarf .
The breakthrough register that icy cloth like this can survive the entire evolution of a star . This blanched nanus would have once been a red colossus , before it toss away its outer layers and left behind just the dense gist of the old champion .
How this comet moved from a distant orbit towards the white midget is n’t clear , though . The research worker hint it may have been bear on inwards by unseen planet in the system . or else , this ashen dwarf ’s companion may have disturb the remote belt of comet , or perhaps a combination of the two idea took place .
But on the positive side , it turn out we ’re not alone in having icy fabric in our Solar System . And if comet delivered water and life here , where else did they do it ?
