Escaping Doom: The Astonishing Survival of Ursa Minor 8 b

2023-06-29 06:00:56
Photo source, Getty Images Image caption, scientists say a red giant should have swallowed ‘Ursa Minor 8 b’ Article related information reporter, Georgina Rannard, BBC climate and science correspondent15 minutes Former scientists to a nearby star The main character is an exoplanet called ‘Ursa Minor 8 b’ (a planet outside the solar system, orbiting around a star other than our sun). ), discovered in the Milky Way in 2015. In fact, Ursa Minor 8 b was destined to be swallowed up by a dying nearby star, so it never caught our eye. However, a recently published study suggests that this dying It is said that Ursa Minor 8 b could have escaped its doom because there was another star that once stopped growing next to the star it was on its way to. Dimitri Vera, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick in the UK, who assisted Dr. Mark Horn of the University of Hawaii, who was the lead researcher on the study, said: Professor Shi said, “It is a unique planet that has never been discovered before. It is special because it was discovered for the first time,” he explained. Scientists explained this theory by first explaining the fate of our solar system, to which the earth belongs. there is. Currently, our sun is in the ‘yellow dwarf’ stage, actively burning hydrogen, but in the very distant future, the sun will also start to die. Mercury, Venus, and eventually the Earth will be swallowed up and greatly expanded. Ursa Minor 8 b was originally destined to disappear due to the expanding surrounding stars. However, Dr. Horn observed the star using the ‘TESS Space Telescope’. Another nearby star appears to have helped Ursa Minor 8 b survive. Photo caption, how this exoplanet survived a nearby expanding red giant Planet Ursa Minor 8 b, according to scientists was originally orbiting two stars, each at a different stage of evolution. One was in the red giant stage, burning hydrogen until it got so hot that the helium core ignited and began to shrink, and the other was in the older, helium burning ‘white dwarf’ stage. And this red giant was a binary star. As it swallowed the white dwarf, the red giant’s helium core ignited and the violent expansion stopped prematurely. This allowed Ursa Minor 8 b to continue orbiting freely around the merged star instead of being absorbed, Horn said. “After putting together a puzzle here and there, a theory came up that the binary star merged,” he explained. Dr. Horn, who observed the celestial objects, along with Professor Veras, an astrophysical theorist, and about 40 scientists, explained how Ursa Minor 8 b could survive. Attempts were made to establish a theory to explain whether it existed. On the other hand, another theory was proposed that Ursa Minor 8 b was formed from material ejected from the merger of two stars. However, this theory is more speculative than the previous theory. Dr. Horn said, “Most stars form binary stars, but there are still many unknowns about how planets form around binary stars.” and finished.
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