Astronomers have identified the oldest star in our galaxy, around which fragments of the same
Discuss
The fate of most stars, including such asour Sun, become white dwarfs. A white dwarf is a star that has burned all of its fuel and shed its outer layers. During this process, any planets revolving around it will be destroyed, leaving only debris.
In a new study, a team of astronomers studiedtwo unusual white dwarfs that were discovered by the GAIA space observatory. Both stars were contaminated with planetary debris. Scientists have learned that the age of one of the white dwarfs is about 10.7 billion years. The second star turned out to be only slightly younger than the first and was contaminated with planetary debris close in composition to the Earth's continental crust.
“We have found the oldest stellar remnants in the MilkyPaths that are polluted by planetary debris that once looked like Earth. It is amazing to think that this happened on a scale of 10 billion years, and that these planets died long before the Earth was formed, ”the scientists shared.