The extraterrestrial sun has time to crush the planets • The register

First case of solar suction

Artist impression of pieces of devastated young planets devoured by a star. Photo Credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss

Scientists believe that they have captured the direct evidence of a star feasting on his own planets for the first time.

RW Aur, a binary star system located in the constellation Taurus-Auriga 450 light-years from Earth, has long intrigued astronomers. The light of one of its stars, RW Aur A, darkens and comes back to life over and over again. But recently, cycles have occurred more frequently and last longer than usual.

Now, a team of researchers believe that they could know why. With the help of data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, they found evidence of a mysterious "absorber", sucking star light. . The absorber is probably found in the inner disk of the star, and it is made up of debris left by young planets that crashed while gravity of the star attracted them.

"Computer simulations have long predicted that planets we have never observed before," said Hans Moritz Guenther, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who led the study.

"If our interpretation of the data is correct, it would be the first time we directly observe a young star devouring a planet or planets."

He explains the strange periods of darkness and brightness as previous events may have been large pieces remaining from the original collision, which broke

"That's speculation, but if you have a two-piece collision, it's likely that afterwards they will be on rogue orbits, increasing the likelihood that they will affect something. "Guenther says.

Iron, good for you, not so much for others

The idea also helps scientists to explain another strange property: the star disk contains too much iron.The level is not as high as the amount on Earth or even the Moon, but higher than the typical environments around of the stars.

"Here we see a lot more iron, at least a factor 10 times more than before, which is very unusual, because typically the stars that are active and hot have less iron than the stars. others, while this one has more, "said Guenther. "Where does this iron come from?"

If RW Aur A sucked his planets and, in fact, did them Crush one on the other. And if one or more of the planets contained a large amount of iron, it could spill a heavy metal charge into the star disk. These particles would also darken the light of the star when it was absorbed by the star.

"Many processes occur in young stars, but these two scenarios could create something similar to what we observed."

The team hopes to continue to monitor the star to see if the brightness and iron levels change. It can also help other astrophysicists to study other planetary systems.

"Many efforts are currently devoted to the study of exoplanets and their formation. It is therefore very important to see how the young planets could be destroyed. young planets, and what factors determine whether they survive, "he concluded. ®

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