Led_Zep SuperJovian
Number of posts : 721 Location : France Registration date : 2011-09-09
| Subject: RW Aur A : first evidence of young star devouring a planet ? 18th July 2018, 5:11 pm | |
| https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/chandra-may-have-first-evidence-of-a-young-star-devouring-a-planet.htmlSince 1937, astronomers have puzzled over the curious variability of a young star named RW Aur A, located about 450 light years from Earth. Every few decades, the star’s optical light has faded briefly before brightening again. In recent years, astronomers have observed the star dimming more frequently, and for longer periods. Using Chandra, a team of scientists may have uncovered what caused the star's most recent dimming event: a collision of two infant planetary bodies, including at least one object large enough to be a planet. As the resulting planetary debris fell into the star, it would generate a thick veil of dust and gas, temporarily obscuring the star’s light (…) The star’s previous dimming events may have been caused by similar smash-ups, of either two planetary bodies or large remnants of past collisions that met head-on and broke apart again | |
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