Necroplanetology: The Strangest Field of Astronomy You've Never Heard Of

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by paddoboy, Mar 29, 2020.

  1. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    27,543
    https://www.sciencealert.com/necroplanetology-the-study-of-planets-dismembered-remains

    In 2015, astronomers found something weird. It was a white dwarf star, 570 light-years from Earth, with a peculiar dimming pattern. It dimmed several times to varying depths, each depth repeating on a 4.5 to 5-hour timeframe; and its atmosphere was polluted with elements usually found in rocky exoplanets.

    It didn't take long before they figured it out. The gravity of the dead star was in the process of shredding and devouring bodies in orbit around it, a violent process known rather politely as tidal disruption.

    The star is called WD 1145+017, and it's now being used as a proof of concept for a new field of planet study, forensic reconstruction of planetary bodies to understand what they were like, and how they died.

    Astronomers from the US and the UK are calling this field necroplanetology.

    Their analysis of WD 1145+017 has been accepted into The Astrophysical Journal, and is available on arXiv. And it could, the researchers say, be applied to future discoveries similar to the white dwarf system to piece together how planets die orbiting different kinds of dead stars.

    more at link.......
     
    Derek.H. likes this.
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  3. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks for the heads up.
    Alex
     
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  5. Derek.H. Registered Member

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    Mr. Paddoboy (Alex) ,
    How would you think this cannibalization relates to stellar-rotation ; considering the tidal-forces which must be involved .
    D..
     
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  7. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Hiya Derek...I can't really answer your question, as I'm only a lay person with an interest in cosmology and associated sciences.
    You are speaking of rotation of the White Dwarf star?
    This may help...
    https://www.sciencealert.com/hints-...glow-of-a-white-dwarf-star-for-the-first-time

    https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2012/09/study-white-dwarfs-tidal-effects-may-create-novae

    http://cds.cern.ch/record/602778/files/0301539.pdf
     
  8. Derek.H. Registered Member

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    Why thank you Mr. Alex , you appear to be a gentleman .
    D.H.
     
  9. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    I'm paddoboy...Alex is another gentleman member...and people have at times called me much worse then a gentleman!!!

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  10. Derek.H. Registered Member

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    10-4 boss-man ! (how's that ?)
     
    paddoboy likes this.

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