Astronomers have identified the vapor remnants of Earth-like planetary crusts in the atmosphere of four nearby white dwarfs, the final stage of evolution for stars up to 10 times the mass of our Sun. This incredible observation suggests that rocky planets across the galaxy formed almost identically and more rapidly, like Earth and Mars.
As reported by the journal Nature Astronomy, the team found the outer layers of white dwarfs contained approximately 300,000 gigatonnes of isolated debris, including 60lithium lithium and about 3,000-gigaton potassium. Comparison with other identified elements such as sodium and calcium proved that this rocky debris formed a similar composition to the crusts of Earth and Mars, if the vapors had mixed with the outer layers of the vapor gas for millions of years. This first element from a planet’s crust was in the atmosphere of white dwarfs.
“In the past, we’ve seen all sorts of things like mantle and core elements, but we haven’t had a specific identification of the crusts on our planet. Lithium and potassium crust are good indicators of the material, they do not appear in the coating or in high concentrations in the core,”explained Dr Mark Holland, author from the University of Warwick in the UK, in a statement.
“Now that we know what chemical signature to look for to identify these elements, we have the opportunity to look at a huge number of white dwarfs and look for more of them. We can then look at the distribution of that signature and find out how many times we have identified these planetary crusts and how it compares to our predictions.” The four white dwarfs may some of the oldest create in our galaxy, burning their fuel 10 billion years ago. One of them is.70 percent bigger than average. In general, “extra-large” white dwarfs are very quick to make rocky objects disappear. The fact that the team observed the material suggests that the white dwarfs are still snacking on what remains of the surrounding planets at once.
“In one case, we’re looking at the formation of planets around a star that formed in Galactic Halo 11-12.5 billion years ago, so it must be one of the oldest known planetary systems yet. Another system formed around a short-lived star that was four times the mass of the Sun, a record-breaking discovery that provided significant impediments to how planets could form rapidly around their host star, “said co-author Dr. Pierre said – Emmanuel Trumbull also from the University of Warwick.
These studies paint a clear picture of how rocky planets form. The composition of this rocky debris is similar to what we see in the solar system, which means that rocky planets can form very quickly, and they have been the same since the beginning of our galaxy, meaning their formation is a very standard process.
“As we have seen, rocky planets form in similar ways in different planetary systems. Initially, they are made up of similar elements like stars, but over time those elements separate and you end up with different chemical compositions in different parts of the planet with we see that there is a difference between these objects Separate, ”Dr. Hollands added. “It is now well understood that most ordinary stars are like planets in the Sun, but now there is a chance to see the frequency of different elements.”
