Astronomers generally don’t know what happens to planets when their stellar host evolves beyond the main sequence, or whether they can even surv

SOFIA Helps Reveal a Destroyed Planetary System

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2023-05-25 22:30:04

Astronomers generally don’t know what happens to planets when their stellar host evolves beyond the main sequence, or whether they can even survive.

Once a star evolves beyond the main sequence – the longest stage of stellar evolution, during which the radiation generated by nuclear fusion in a star’s core is balanced by gravitation – the fate of any planetary system it may have had is an enigma.

In a paper published recently in The Astronomical Journal, researchers used new data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), whose science mission operations were managed by Universities Space Research Association, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), as well as archival data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory, to study the Helix Nebula. These observations provide one potential explanation for the fate of these planetary remains.

The Helix Nebula is an old planetary nebula – expanding, glowing gas ejected from its host star after its main-sequence life ended. The nebula has a very young white dwarf at its center, but this central white dwarf is peculiar. It emits more infrared radiation than expected. To answer the question of where this excess emission comes from, the astronomers first determined where it could not have come from.