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The discovery, detailed in the Dec. 22 issue of the journal Science, could be a sign of what will happen in our own solar system in a few billion years. Because the crushed asteroid was probably gravitationally lassoed in by one or more planets, the finding also provides evidence that planetary systems can form around massive stars.
While analyzing the light spectra of several hundred white dwarfs, astronomer Boris G?icke of the University of Warwick discovered evidence of a cool dust cloud around the white dwarf G29-38. White dwarfs are the dead stellar remains of relatively small stars like our Sun that have run out of fuel and sloughed their outer layers off into space.
The discovery, detailed in the Dec. 22 issue of the journal Science, could be a sign of what will happen in our own solar system in a few billion years. Because the crushed asteroid was probably gravitationally lassoed in by one or more planets, the finding also provides evidence that planetary systems can form around massive stars.
While analyzing the light spectra of several hundred white dwarfs, astronomer Boris G?icke of the University of Warwick discovered evidence of a cool dust cloud around the white dwarf G29-38. White dwarfs are the dead stellar remains of relatively small stars like our Sun that have run out of fuel and sloughed their outer layers off into space.
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