A white dwarf has finally been observed devouring a planet. This scientific feat was achieved by studying x-ray light emitted from a white dwarf, and this x-ray light formed as a result of a planet colliding into the white dwarf. Past observations of the atmospheres of white dwarves were conducted using spectroscopic analysis, which involves visible light instead of x-rays. By analyzing the emitted x-ray light, scientists were able to deduct that white dwarves, which form after a star collapses upon the end of their life, eat up other nearby objects akin to the way black holes do.
Key Takeaways:
- White dwarfs work similar to neuron stars and black holes, so they are the collapsed core of a star.
- White dwarfs are the core of a precursor star and are from much smaller stars than neuron stars and black holes.
- At the end of a stars life it ejects almost all of it’s outer material.
“Now, for the first time, astronomers have caught such a Cronian meal in action, betrayed by the flare of X-ray light as material from the planet falls down onto the stellar core.”
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