Many
superhero films
have shown the
end of the world, whether it be as a multiversal danger, an approaching comet, or a
collapse of society. Scientists have now witnessed the actual event.
Scientists have reportedly observed what the end of the Earth might be if it
were to be engulfed by a fading star, according to a report from
MIT News.
The article refers to a study that was published in Nature and was carried
out by researchers from MIT, Harvard University, Caltech, and other
institutions. On the team that made the discovery, Kishalay De, a postdoc at
MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said that the
event they were watching involved a dying star and was like "seeing the
future of the Earth."
Astronomers first noticed a strange surge of energy coming from a dying
star that increased in temperature rapidly over only 10 days before
inexplicably disappearing. De recalls the moment they first saw the peculiar
event was place: "It was unlike any stellar outburst I had seen in my
life."
The chemicals that were being released were at very low temperatures,
despite the dying star brightening, which indicates high temperatures. Using
NASA's infrared satellite observatory, NEOWISE, they traced the origin of
the anomaly as they investigated the incident further, but what they found
was startling. De remembered, "That infrared data made me fall off my
chair."
It was a "happy coincidence" that the scientists recalled that the mass of
Jupiter is likewise approximately 1/1000 that of the
sun
when they recognized that the object that smashed into the dying star was
only about 1/1000 of its size. They came to the conclusion that what they
were witnessing was a planet colliding with its own star as a result. This
is an interesting discovery for scientists since it is one of the first
instances of a star consuming one of its own planets that has been detected.
Scientists have witnessed such events before they happen and their
repercussions afterward.
De, MIT's Deepto Chakrabarty, Anna-Christina Eilers, Erin Kara, Robert
Simcoe, Richard Teague, and Andrew Vanderburg were co-authors on the study,
which also included contributions from Caltech, the Harvard and Smithsonian
Centers for Astrophysics, among other organizations. The Zwicky Transient
Facility (ZTF) at Caltech's Palomar Observatory, the W.M. Keck Observatory,
and NASA's NEOWISE mission were among the instruments used to study the
fading star.
ZTF SLRN-2020, a fading star in the constellation Aquila, is roughly 15,000
light-years away and is responsible for this planet's demise. Amazingly,
this took place within our galaxy, as opposed to
Star Wars, which takes place in a galaxy far, far away. When the sun eventually runs
out of fuel, which is predicted to happen in around 5 billion years,
Earth
will meet an apocalyptic end.
This finding provides a unique window into the turbulent and dynamic
processes at the heart of dying stars. Astronomers can better grasp how
planets form, develop, and eventually perish by examining these phenomena in
greater detail. As a result, we may be better able to comprehend both the
nature of the world and our own position within it.
