Science & Tech · Space · 1 day ago
Hubble data hint at a planet formed from a dying star’s remains
Astronomers studying old observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found an unusual amount of the element niobium around the white dwarf HS 0209+0832.
A white dwarf is the leftover core of a star that has used up its fuel and shed its outer layers.
The observations were collected in 1999, and researchers later identified the chemical signature by comparing the data with an updated database.
They say the niobium points to material released as the star died.
The team proposes that some of this expelled material gathered together to form a gas giant planet.
If so, it would be a second-generation planet, formed after its star died, unlike the planets in our solar system, which formed with the Sun.
The finding suggests that planetary systems may continue to develop after a star’s main life ends.
Hubble observations suggest that a second-generation planet may orbit the white dwarf HS 0209+0832.
The evidence comes from an unusually high abundance of niobium detected in old Hubble data.
Researchers propose that material expelled by the dying star gathered to form a gas giant.
The findings were reported in a study published in Nature Astronomy on October 5.
- Who
- Astronomers studying the white dwarf HS 0209+0832, led by Jamie Williams.
- What
- Hubble data provide evidence that a second-generation planet may orbit the white dwarf.
- When
- The Hubble observations were collected in 1999. The study was published October 5; its publication year is not stated.
- Where
- In the HS 0209+0832 system; its location is not stated.
- Why
- The unusually high abundance of niobium suggests the presence of material expelled by the dying star, from which a planet may have formed.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Rather than the white dwarf stage being a kind of epilogue to the story of a star and its planets, this research points to the systems we are familiar with only being the first chapter of a potentially much longer tale, with some new characters showing up. That’s a really exciting prospect to pursue
What Hubble is showing us in this white dwarf system is something we haven’t seen before: a high abundance of the element niobium, the signature of which I was unfamiliar with when I first found it in the archival data
Niobium and other elements heavier than iron are astronomically special because, unlike many common elements, they are not formed in the cores of stars by thermonuclear fusion. Instead, these heavy elements can only be synthesized in the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars. The presence of niobium is a signpost of these ‘death’ throes, and the expulsion of the dying star’s innards into space.
Hubble observed the HS 0209+0832 system and recorded about 100 chemical features that astronomers could not identify.
Jamie Williams revisited the archived observations and matched many unexplained features to niobium using an updated chemical database.
A study reporting evidence for a possible second-generation planet around HS 0209+0832 was published in Nature Astronomy.
- White dwarf
- HS 0209+0832
- Telescope
- NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
- Original observations
- 1999
- Unidentified chemical features
- Roughly 100
- Notable element
- Niobium
- Study publication
- October 5, Nature Astronomy
Sources
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