A planet equal to our Jupiter in size is orbiting a dwarf star, and astronomers believe it is what our solar system’s future may look like once the Sun dies.
Astronomers suggest what our solar system may be in the future when our Sun dies after a billion years down the track.
On Wednesday, within the Journal Nature, astronomers reported observing an exciting preview of our photovoltaic system’s afterlife.
Some 6500 light-years away from Earth, a Jupiter-like planet called MOA-2010-BLDG-477 Lb revolves around a star that has gone dormant.
Astronomers have discovered a planet star pair that replicates the future our solar system will see for the first time.
In about five billion years, our Sun will multiply in size and consume its inner planets. This latest discovery gives hope about Jupiter’s survival after the Sun becomes a red giant star.
Sun’s future
A general sketch of how the Sun will behave after ten billion years from now is present in every astronomer’s mind. However, the possibility of the exact thing happening is uncertain. The death of stars is an expected future shared by many stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Currently, our Sun is 4.6 billion years old and is a pretty typical “main sequence star.” The light and heat of the star are produced as it fuses hydrogen with heavier elements.
Nonetheless, in around five to six years, its hydrogen inventory will run out. One of the astronomers at the University of Tasmania, Dr. Joshua Blackman, said that the Sun’s core would contract and collapse as its outer layers swell and transform it into a red giant star.
He also said if humanity still exists after five billion years, then they would have a better chance of survival in one of the moons of Jupiter than on the Earth.
This swollen surface of the Sun will gradually start intruding on the Solar system, and this process is inevitable.
The inner planets like Mercury, Venus, and Earth will get engulfed, but Mars and other distant gas giants have scopes of survival.
Around another few hundred million years or so, the Sun will leave its fluffy red skin into space, leaving behind a dead, dense core — a white dwarf.
More Observations
This planet was first observed because of light warping due to its gravitational discipline, a phenomenon better known to everyone as microlensing.
The astronomers even tried discovering the years of its host star using the Keck II telescope in Hawaii.
Still, eventually, the astronomers concluded that the planet was orbiting a white dwarf, which is too faint to be easily visible.
The astronomers also discovered another similar planet, and they called it WD 1856 b. However, there exists one difference between these two planets.
MOA-2010-BLDG-477Lb revolves its hidden stellar shell thrice the space between the Earth and the solar system, making it the central identified planet to occupy a Jupiter-like orbit around a white dwarf star.
Compared to this, WD 1856 orbits its white dwarf every 1.4 days, signifying that it migrated into its present place after the loss of life of its star.
Even though human lives may not be around in such a long time, particularly around white dwarfs, next-generation observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope may provide better insights.
Concrete answers about intact plants spotted orbiting around white dwarfs can be achieved. Moreover, scientists will gain a better perspective on the life and afterlife of these inexplicable systems of the cosmos.
Sayani Banerje