Posted on 08/17/2007 10:13:12 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Astronomers from UCLA report that a white dwarf star known as GD 362, which is surrounded by dusty rings similar to those of Saturn, has been contaminated by a large asteroid that left more than a dozen observable chemical elements in the white dwarf's atmosphere... The UCLA astronomers think that after about a billion years orbiting the white dwarf as part of an ancient planetary system, an asteroid got close enough to the star to be torn apart by its very strong gravitational force field... The asteroid broke apart into dust particles that orbited the white dwarf and over time "polluted the white dwarf's atmosphere," said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and lead author of the research... Zuckerman said the research result does not rule out the possibility that two planets in this ancient planetary system collided and the orbiting dust and detected elements are from a piece of one of the colliding planets... The group of astronomers... detected 17 elements in the atmosphere of the white dwarf... Many of the elements have never before been detected in the atmosphere of a white dwarf, including the rare elements strontium and scandium.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Artist's visualization of a dust disk around the white dwarf GD 362. This new research implies that the forces that made the Earth and our inner solar system seem to have occurred in this system as well, and probably around other white dwarfs too. (Credit: Gemini Observatory Illustration by Jon Lomberg)
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · | ||
I see Glob Al Warming has been busy....
Had the Kyoto Accord been signed, white dwarves wouldn’t have to put up with such pollution.
If I’m not already on the catastrophism ping list, I should be.
Thanks.
And here I was thinking this was going to be yet another Anna Nicole thread.
Elvis...?
:’) way ahead of ya... ;’)
Instead of them, the treaty has been tossed.
Well, by his standards, he has... ;’)
Well, what kept ya? ;’)
A peanut butter and banana sandwich does sound good about now...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
