An international team of astrophysicists led by the University of Warwick has published its results.
Most stars are similar in size to oursThe Sun ends its evolution in the form of white dwarfs. This is a star that has burned its fuel, shed its outer layers, and is slowly cooling and cooling. The shells thrown off at the final stages, as a rule, destroy the planetary system, leaving only fragments in the orbit of such a star.
In their work, astrophysicists studied two whitedwarf, which was recently discovered by the GAIA space observatory. They are both surrounded by the debris of destroyed planets, but one of them turned out to be unusually blue, and the other - the dimmest and reddest white dwarf in the immediate environment.
Scientists have studied both stars using variousinstruments sensitive to different wavelengths. The observation showed that the age of the “red” star WDJ2147-4035 is about 10.7 billion years, of which it spent 10.2 billion years as a cooling white dwarf that has lost its fuel. The second "blue" star WDJ1922+0233 is only slightly younger than the "red" one. It is "contaminated" with planetary debris, similar in composition to the continental crust of the Earth.
The researchers note that the wreckage foundnear the "red" star WDJ2147-4035, belong to an old planetary system that survived the star's evolution into a white dwarf. They believe that these are the remains of the oldest planetary system in the Milky Way.
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On the cover: an artistic illustration of two old white dwarfs. Image: University of Warwick/Dr Mark Garlick