Our Solar System Is Doomed Because of This Star

0:00Hey, look at this blazing monster. It's a white dwarf. These stars are known for gobbling up passing objects. And one day, these objects might be the planets of our own solar system. According to a new study, parts of the solar system will be pulled into a white dwarf star, crushed up, and eventually ground into a fine dust like coffee beans and a blade grinder. Hey, you like that analogy? Now, white dwarfs are a final stage of a star's life. It's a small but very dense star that's typically the size of a planet. The result of a low-bastar exhausting all the nuclear fuel in its center and losing its outer layers as a planetary nebula. When our sun turns into a white dwarf, and it is bound to happen sometime, it'll destroy the asteroids and moons around Mars and Jupiter. They will be pulverized by its gravity. Earth, though, will be swallowed up even before the sun turns into a white dwarf. But it won't happen for another six billion years.

1:00Researchers working on this topic have come to such conclusions by observing what happened to space bodies, asteroids, moons, and planets that were passing close to three white dwarfs. For 17 years, they observed and analyzed transits. That's when the brightness of a white dwarf dips, because of an object in a stable orbit passing in front of it. In the case of white dwarfs, we can predict such transits and use them to study the stars themselves and celestial objects passing by them. So, when something gets too close to a white dwarf star, the star's immense gravity rips it into smaller and smaller pieces of debris. The team also found out that transits of such debris are chaotic. Plus, this debris is oddly shaped, which means that it is being devoured further. The first white dwarf used for studying the transit process, this year, guy, seems steady and well-behaved over the last few years. Well, until scientists found some evidence of a massive catastrophic event

2:02that occurred in 2010 or so. The next star dims irregularly every couple of months before brightening again. And the third dwarf star used to behave close to theoretical predictions. It had transits that varied in number, shapes, and depths. But the latest study has shown that the transits are now completely gone, and this indicates the un-predicted nature of transits. When minute you see them, the next poof. The reason might be the chaotic environment they have to exist in. As for our own solar system and our planet in general, its fate looks pretty sad. Earth will be swallowed by the expanding sun, even before our star turns into a white dwarf. As for the rest of the solar system, located further from the sun, some of the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, as well as some of Jupiter's moons, will be destroyed later. Oh well, they're likely to get dislodged and travel too close to the white dwarf. Now, at the same time, astronomers aren't 100% sure

3:05that it's exactly what will happen with our solar system. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, for like six billion years. Speaking of white dwarves, scientists have recently found one that has a bizarre metallic scar on its surface. This blemish could have formed after the star repped up and ate a tiny planet orbiting it. White dwarves, with traces of metal in their atmospheres, aren't rare. These traces are left by planets falling into stars, affected by their gravity. Experts have long thought that such metal should be distributed evenly across the surface of such polluted white dwarves. But a new study had discovered a white dwarf with a weird concentrated patch of metal. The star was monitored over a period of two months with the help of the very large telescope and Chile. The researchers found an opaque patch of metal. It was located over one of the star's magnetic poles and blocked some of the star's light as it rotated. Based on this position, astronomers concluded that the material could have been funneled

4:06into the star by its powerful magnetic field. This process is similar to one causing auroras on Earth, where charged particles follow the magnetic field to the surface. Now, the planet, destroyed by the white dwarf, was most likely very small. Around the same size as asteroid Vesta in our solar system, which is a mere 326 miles across. Its debris is now prominently displayed on the host star's surface. It makes it easier for researchers to examine what the planet's geochemistry was before it was devoured. Such a study might even turn out to be one of the best ways to observe small worlds beyond the solar system, even if such a world has already met its demands. There might be many more scarred stars like this one. The one in question was the first, but probably not the last. Even better, astronomers have already discovered two white dwarfs that seem to have similar scars. Making repeat observations of such stars might help us unearth, pardon the pun,

5:08now I meant to do that. Unearth even more secrets and make more discoveries. Another bizarre white dwarf discovered not long ago seems to have stopped cooling due to the formation of internal crystals. It challenges existing theories on star aging and also questions the method of stellar age estimation. But, scientists might have understood why it may be happening. White dwarfs are believed to be dead stars, they keep cooling down over time, and normally this process can't be reversed or paused. But, in 2019, the European Space Agency's Gaya Satellite discovered a number of white dwarf stars that had stopped cooling for more than 8 billion years. It might mean that some white dwarfs can generate a lot of extra energy, which is at odds with the classical dead star theory. At first, astronomers couldn't figure out how it might happen. But, in the end, more than 97% of stars in the Milky Way galaxy turn into white dwarfs.

6:08Astronomers have long thought that such stars are at the end of their lives. After depleting their nuclear energy source, they stop producing heat and cool down. Eventually, the dense plasma in their insides freezes into a solid state and the star solidifies from inside out. The whole process can take billions of years. But, the new research claims that in some white dwarfs, this dense plasma doesn't simply freeze. Instead, its solid crystals forming upon freezing become less dense than the liquid and start floating around. They displace the heavier liquid downward. The movement of heavier material toward the center of a white dwarf releases gravitational energy. And this energy is enough to interrupt the star's cooling process and halt it for billions of years. Now, this explanation actually matches all of the properties of the unusual white dwarf population. But, this is the first time such a transport mechanism has been seen in any type of star.

7:10And that's incredibly exciting, a totally new astrophysical phenomenon. But, why does it happen in some stars, but not in others? It most likely depends on the composition of the star. You see, some white dwarf stars are formed by the merger of two different stars. When they collide in formal white dwarf, it changes the composition of the star, which allows the formation of floating crystals. So, this discovery might mean that astronomers will have to review the ways they use to determine the age of stars. At the moment, white dwarfs are often used as age indicators. The cooler a white dwarf is, the older it's believed to be. But now, we already know about possible delays in the cooling process of some dwarfs. It makes the popular age determination method more unreliable. Some stars of a given temperature may be billions of years older than we previously thought. The recently uncovered transport mechanism within white dwarfs means that some of these stars can be shining as bright as normal for billions of years.

8:14This complicates age dating and the use of white dwarfs to reconstruct the formation of our galaxy. Hey, stay tuned.