A Planet 4,000 Light-Years Away Could Be a Glimpse of Earth 5 Billion Years from Now.
A research team led by Dr. Jessica Lu from the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered a unique system that includes a Earth-like planet orbiting a cosmic “zombie.”
According to Sci-News, the entire celestial cluster under study is collectively named KMT-2020-BLG-0414.
This cluster contains a white dwarf star located 4,000 light-years away from us. Orbiting this star is an Earth-like planet and a brown dwarf.
An Earth-like planet in the foreground with its parent star being a dead white dwarf – (Illustration AI: ANH THƯ).
Additionally, this cluster includes a bright star located 25,000 light-years away from us.
In 2020, the white dwarf star inadvertently passed in front of the bright star as viewed from Earth. The gravitational field of the nearby star system magnified the distant star, causing both to shine brightly in the data collected by the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network.
Now, scientists have analyzed this special data in detail and discovered the aforementioned Earth-like planet. More precisely, it is a post-apocalyptic Earth, according to a study recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
With a mass about 1.9 times that of Earth, it is still classified as a planet with Earth-like mass. It orbits its parent star at a distance of about 2.1 AU. An AU, or astronomical unit, is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
By comparing various factors, this distant planet may have once had an environment similar to ours. However, the most horrifying aspect is that it orbits a white dwarf star.
A white dwarf is a “zombie” object in the universe. Our Sun will also transform into a white dwarf after running out of energy in about 5 billion years. But in between, it will go through a “dying” phase, swelling into a much larger red giant star.
Therefore, the Earth-like planet mentioned above has undergone a terrifying phase when its parent star expanded into a red giant.
Theoretically, red giant stars can engulf nearby planets, within a range of about 1-3 AU, depending on the intensity of the star’s explosion.
This is why astronomers predict that Earth, along with Mercury and Venus, will be engulfed in about 5 billion years, while Mars’s fate is “up in the air.”
Some planets may survive such an explosion. The planet located 4,000 light-years away is an example. However, it is certain that the red giant phase of its parent star would have wiped out all life there.
