#planetaryscience

White dwarf devours pluto-like world, astronomers reveal cosmic feast

  Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) One well-done gas giant, coming right up! That’s the latest from researchers analyzing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of HD 80606 b, an exoplanet four times the mass of Jupiter with an extremely elliptical orbit that sweeps close by its Sun-like star. The research team is presenting their study and preliminary findings Tuesday…

Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator. His best-known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including the experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. 

Born: 9 November 1934, Brooklyn, New York, United States

Died: 20 December 1996 (age 62 years), Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States.

Popularised Science Through “Cosmos” Sagan co-wrote and hosted Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980), a groundbreaking TV series that brought astronomy and the wonder of the universe into millions of homes. It became one of the most-watched PBS series in history.

Worked on NASA Missions He played a major role in several NASA missions, including the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo programs. He helped design messages for extraterrestrial life, like the Golden Record aboard Voyager.

Pioneer of Planetary Science Sagan was instrumental in explaining the greenhouse effect on Venus, the seasonal changes on Mars, and the nature of Saturn's moon Titan. He essentially helped define planetary science as a field.

Wrote the Novel Contact His 1985 science-fiction novel Contact (later made into a film starring Jodie Foster in 1997) tackled the philosophical and scientific implications of contact with extraterrestrial life.

As a star runs out of fuel, it will billow out to a million times its original size, engulfing any matter — and planets — in its wake. Scientists have observed hints of stars just before, and shortly after, the act of consuming entire planets, but they have never caught one in the act until now.

In a study appearing in Nature, scientists at MIT, Harvard University, Caltech, and elsewhere report that they have observed a star swallowing a planet, for the first time.

The planetary demise appears to have taken place in our own galaxy, some 12,000 light-years away, near the eagle-like constellation Aquila. There, astronomers spotted an outburst from a star that became more than 100 times brighter over just 10 days, before quickly fading away. Curiously, this white-hot flash was followed by a colder, longer-lasting signal. This combination, the scientists deduced, could only have been produced by one event: a star engulfing a nearby planet.

What of the planet that perished? The scientists estimate that it was likely a hot, Jupiter-sized world that spiraled close, then was pulled into the dying star’s atmosphere, and, finally, into its core.

A similar fate will befall the Earth, though not for another 5 billion years, when the sun is expected to burn out, and burn up the solar system’s inner planets. 🪐🌎☄️🔭🌌

Learn more about this here → https://news.mit.edu/2023/astronomers-spot-star-swallowing-planet-0503