NASA's Chandra telescope detect first sign of young star devouring planets
New Delhi : NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory came up with a new observation which gave scientists the chance see first sign of a young star devouring a young planet or planets.
"Computer simulations have long predicted that planets can fall into a young star, but we have never before observed that," said lead researcher Hans Moritz Guenther from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
"If our interpretation of the data is correct, this would be the first time that we directly observe a young star devouring a planet or planets," Guenther said.
The new study suggests that the parent star, located about 450 light years from Earth, is now in the process to gulp down the planetary debris which may result from collision of infant planetary bodies. This latest discovery gives an insight into the processes which affects the survival of newborn planets.
The interesting study has been published in the Astronomical Journal
Sources confirmed that since 1937, astronomers were searching the puzzled variability of the young star named RW Aur A.
Every few decades, the star's optical light has washed out briefly before brightening again. In recent years, experts observed the star dimming more commonly and for longer periods.
The new study could possibly explain what caused the star's most recent dimming event following the collision of two infant planetary bodies, including at least one object large enough to be a planet.
Since planetary waste fell into the star, it would generate a thick mask of dust and gas, temporarily fading the star's light.
Scientists believe that earlier dimming events may have been the result of similar collision, of either two planetary bodies or large remnants of past collisions that met and broke apart into pieces.
"Much effort currently goes into learning about exoplanets and how they form, so it is obviously very important to see how young planets could be destroyed in interactions with their host stars and other young planets, and what factors determine if they survive," Guenther said.
