
Dwarf Star Tore An Asteroid To Shreds
It is the first time in history when scientists were able to look up to the stars and see a special debris ring. If you are an expert in the field, you might question this for a moment. A debris ring? Space is filled with those. And indeed it is, but have you ever seen or heard of one that took shape after the destruction of an asteroid? A dwarf star tore an asteroid to shreds and this gave birth to a swirling beauty that has never ever been seen before.
The gentlemen who first witnessed this even are researchers from the University of Warwick, U.K., and they claim that the rigs are formed out of dust and debris that the star claims for itself. Any object unlucky enough to approach this star will be obliterated and the result will be kept as some sort of trophy that will be swirled over and over as a sign of conquer over space.
Christopher Manser, the man in charge of this research, has mentioned scientists have been well aware of these “debris disks around white years for over 20 years, but have only now been able to obtain the first image of one of these disks”. The event is one of extreme rarity, thus it is very important to cherish it for its uniqueness, given the fact that it took so long to actually find one.
This particular construction is very similar to Saturn and its rings, but it is said to be a lot wider. In fact, the space within the structure’s rings is apparently big enough to house Saturn and all his companions within it. The gap’s diameter measures around half the sun’s size and while the star is around 7 times smaller than the planet in our solar system, it is 2500 times heavier. Those are some serious numbers to take into consideration.
When asked about the importance of these mega structures, scientists always argue that it helps is understand how our very own solar system will look like after the sun will have wasted all of its energy. Luckily, this process will take millions of years and we might not even be around at that time anymore, either as a species, or on this planet.
So a dwarf star tore an asteroid to shreds and here we are: talking about objects bigger and heavier that we will ever be able to conceive and how things will be millions of years in the future. It surely led to fascinating thoughts.
Photo Credits wikimedia.org
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