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Astronomers may have solved a enigma involving a mysterious X-ray signal from a dying star that's been puzzling scientists since 1980.
New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite has shown that a planet may have been destroyed by a white dwarf—one of the dimmest stars in the universe—at the center of a planetary nebula known as the Helix Nebula, or "WD 2226-210".
A planetary nebula is a star in its late stage that has shed its outer layers, leaving behind a small dim star at its center known as a white dwarf, explains the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) explains.
"We might have finally found the cause of a mystery that's lasted over 40 years," Sandino Estrada-Dorado from the National Autonomous University of Mexico said in a statement.
"We think this X-ray signal could be from planetary debris pulled onto the white dwarf, as the death knell from a planet that was destroyed by the white dwarf in the Helix Nebula."
If the X-ray signal is confirmed to be the debris from a destroyed planet being pulled onto the white dwarf, "this would be the first case of a planet seen to be destroyed by the central star in a planetary nebula," the CXC explained.
According to the researchers, the X-ray signal from the white dwarf remained relatively constant in brightness between 1992, 1999 and 2002.
The latest data suggests there may be "a subtle, regular change in the X-ray signal every 2.9 hours, providing evidence for the remains of a planet exceptionally close to the white dwarf," the CXC said.
Scientists have previously said that a Neptune-sized planet is in a very close orbit around the white dwarf, completing one revolution in less than three days. However, researchers in the latest study concluded that there may have been a planet like Jupiter even closer to the white dwarf.
"The besieged planet could have initially been a considerable distance from the white dwarf but then migrated inwards by interacting with the gravity of other planets in the system," the CXC explained.
"Once it approached close enough to the white dwarf the gravity of the star would have partially or completely torn the planet apart."
The Helix Nebula is said to exhibit some X-ray behavior that is similar to that of two other white dwarfs that are not inside planetary nebulas.
One of the other white dwarfs may be "pulling material away from a planet companion, but in a more sedate fashion without the planet being quickly destroyed," while the other is "likely dragging material from the vestiges of a planet onto its surface," the CXC said.
"These three white dwarfs may constitute a new class of variable, or changing, object," they added.
"It's important to find more of these systems because they can teach us about the survival or destruction of planets around stars like the Sun as they enter old age," paper co-author and astrophysicist Jesús Toala of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said in a statement.
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Reference
Estrada-Dorado, S., Guerrero, M. A., Toalá, J. A., Maldonado, R. F., Lora, V., Vasquez-Torres, D. A., & Chu, Y.-H. (2024). Accretion onto WD 2226$-$210, the central star of the Helix Nebula (No. arXiv:2412.07863). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.07863
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