{"id":103733,"date":"2025-10-29T07:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103733\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T07:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:08:10","slug":"astronomers-watch-a-zombie-white-dwarf-star-devour-the-remnants-of-a-destroyed-planet-and-cant-explain-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103733\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers Watch a \u2018Zombie\u2019 White Dwarf Star Devour the Remnants of a Destroyed Planet \u2014 and Can\u2019t Explain Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

The star in question, LSPM J0207+3331, lies 145 light-years from Earth and was once a sun-like star. It exhausted its fuel three billion years ago, shedding its outer layers and settling into the slow decay of white dwarfhood. But new observations show that this so-called \u201czombie star\u201d is far from dormant: it\u2019s actively devouring the remains of what may have been a rocky planet.<\/p>\n

The discovery adds weight to the idea that planetary systems can remain unstable for eons, even after their stars die. The star\u2019s unexpected activity could \u201cchange how we view planetary systems in their afterlife,\u201d raising urgent questions about how long planetary bodies can persist \u2014 and how they finally fall.<\/p>\n

Traces of a Shattered Planet<\/p>\n

Using spectroscopic data, researchers detected a cocktail of heavy elements in the white dwarf\u2019s atmosphere: magnesium, iron, silicon, cobalt, aluminum, and more \u2014 13 in total. These match the typical composition of rocky bodies like Earth. Since such elements usually sink quickly into the star<\/a>\u2019s hydrogen-rich envelope, their presence at the surface means they were deposited recently.<\/p>\n

Patrick Dufour of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets noted the anomaly. \u201cThe amount of rocky material is unusually high for a white dwarf of this age,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a>. The planetary body being consumed was likely about 120 miles wide, and the disintegration is happening piece by piece.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time astronomers have observed white dwarfs polluted with planetary debris. What\u2019s different here is the timing. After three billion years, this kind of activity should have stopped. The material should have long since either been swallowed or stabilized.<\/p>\n

\"AA white dwarf star sucks in the rocky remains of an Earth-like planet \u2013 \u00a9 University of Warwick\/Mark Garlick<\/p>\n

A Silicate-Rich Debris Disk Surrounds the Star<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) first detected an excess of mid-infrared light around LSPM J0207+3331, pointing to the presence of a surrounding debris disk. This disk is likely rich in silicates \u2014 the same material found in planetary crusts \u2014 and may have supplied the doomed object currently falling into the star.<\/p>\n

Researchers now suspect that the destroyed body came from this reservoir, formed from leftover planetary chunks after the star\u2019s red giant phase. \u00c9rika Le Bourdais, lead author of the study<\/a>, said the accretion shows that planetary debris can remain active for far longer than expected. \u201cOngoing accretion at this stage suggests white dwarfs may also retain planetary remnants still undergoing dynamical changes,\u201d she explained, according to Space<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The next step is to analyze the disk more closely. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope could help determine its composition and total mass, shedding more light on the planetary system\u2019s evolution and how long it has remained active.<\/p>\n

Mystery Disruption Raises New Questions<\/p>\n

The biggest unknown is why this event is happening now. For three billion years, the system remained quiet. Then something \u2014 or someone \u2014 woke it up. John Debes of the Space Telescope Science Institute suspects that surviving gas giant planets could be disturbing the orbits of smaller bodies, nudging them inward over time.<\/p>\n

These outer planets, likely cold and distant, are hard to detect. Direct imaging is improbable, but the European Space Agency\u2019s Gaia mission might be able to identify tiny movements in the white dwarf caused by gravitational tugs from unseen planets. Gaia\u2019s first exoplanet data is scheduled for release in December 2026, offering a possible path to answers.<\/p>\n

As Debes put it, \u201cThere\u2019s still a reservoir of material capable of polluting the white dwarf, even after billions of years.\u201d Something is still stirring out there \u2014 and LSPM J0207+3331 is proof that even dead stars have stories left to tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The star in question, LSPM J0207+3331, lies 145 light-years from Earth and was once a sun-like star. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-103733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}