Astronomers have discovered a deceased replica of the Solar System, revealing what could happen to Earth and the seven remaining planets in the next few billion years.
The good news is that the planets in the Solar System will not be completely destroyed 5 billion years from now after the Sun swells and collapses into a white dwarf. However, the bad news is that the survivors will not include our Earth, according to a paper presented by Associate Professor Dimitri Veras from the University of Warwick (UK), recently published in The Conversation.
Graphic depicting the newly discovered white dwarf system – (Image: W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko).
Using the “microlensing detection method” implemented at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which examines how light bends due to a strong gravitational field, scientists have observed a star system centered around a white dwarf located 6,500 light-years away from us.
This method can only be performed when two stars align from the perspective of Earth, where the gravitational force from the foreground star magnifies the light from the background star. If the magnified light is bent at some point, it indicates the presence of a planet orbiting the foreground star.
According to Science Alert, a white dwarf is essentially the corpse of a star. When our Sun exhausts its energy, it will first expand into a red giant star before collapsing into a small white dwarf.
The surprising aspect of the newly discovered white dwarf system is that it still has a giant planet orbiting it. This planet is similar to Jupiter, but it may have formed from two planets that survived after the death of the parent star.
The original study, recently published in the scientific journal Nature, used this new discovery to predict the future of the Solar System. It suggests that Mercury and Venus will be engulfed during the Sun’s expansion into a red giant.
Jupiter will almost certainly survive along with its massive moons, but it may be joined by a merger with the small Mars nearby. The more distant planets—giant celestial bodies—also have a high chance of surviving. All will become frigid due to the lack of warmth from the parent star; however, it is not certain that new forms of life could not arise beneath the icy oceans of some planets, as well as on some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s large moons…
