#Codet #Face #Cannibal #Star
It’s not just black holes that can devour the matter around them. Stars like the Sun can also become cannibal stars, especially at the end of their lives.
Illustration of the white dwarf star WD 0816-310 devouring the planets around it. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
When the Sun ages, the central star in the Solar System will evolve and expand into a red giant star. At that time, the Sun had started cannibalism by devouring the planets closest to it such as Mercury and Venus. Not only that, it is possible that the Earth is also super close to the Sun or has actually entered the Sun’s envelope.
Ultimately, at the end of its life, the Sun will transform into a cool white dwarf star, after its envelope is ejected as a planetary nebula.
The same evolution of course occurs in stars like the Sun. At the end of its life, a star like the Sun will devour the planets and asteroids around it. And this time, astronomers found unique traces of the cannibalism process.
There are streaks or scars printed on the surface of the white dwarf star. This metal codet was discovered when astronomers made observations with the FORS2 instrument on the VLT.
Metal Codet
When a star like the Sun eventually becomes a white dwarf star, this star is very hot with a temperature that can exceed 100,000 K. However, a white dwarf star has no energy source so its temperature continues to drop and it becomes a cold star. However, some white dwarf stars are notorious for their cannibalism. These stars devour their own planetary systems.
It turns out that the star’s magnetic field plays an important role in the cannibalism process and leaves streaks on the surface of the white dwarf star.
Astronomers discovered this codet in WD 0816-310, an Earth-sized white dwarf that originated from a star similar to the Sun. Even though the original star is similar to the Sun, the origin star of the white dwarf WD 0816-310 is more massive than the Sun.
What’s interesting is that the codet is a concentration of metal printed on the surface of WD 0816-310. The metal itself apparently comes from fragments of a planet the size of the asteroid Vesta, which is around 500 km across.
Wounds on the Face
The observations also show how white dwarf stars acquire these metallic scars.
From the observations, astronomers recognized changes in the power of metal detection as the star rotated. This means that the metal is only concentrated in certain areas on the surface of the white dwarf star and is not distributed evenly. In addition, this change in detection strength is also synchronous with changes in the white dwarf’s magnetic field. There are indications that the metal codet is located on one of the magnetic poles.
From the results of existing observations, astronomers concluded that the magnetic field in the white dwarf star attracted metal to the star and ultimately produced streaks or scars on the surface.
One interesting thing, when this metallic material injures the star’s surface, the material is not mixed evenly on the star’s surface as theory predicts. What actually happens is that the material from the planet that was pulled towards the white dwarf star remains concentrated in the same location. This all cannot be separated from the magnetic field which attracts and directs the fragments of material that fall towards the star. This discovery shows how planetary systems remain active even after ‘death’.
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