White Dwarf Caught Devouring a Frozen Pluto

White dwarf caught devouring a frozen Pluto

Astronomers have detected the chemical fingerprint of a frozen, water-rich planetary fragment being devoured by a white dwarf star, offering the clearest evidence yet that icy, life-delivering objects exist beyond our Solar System. The find suggests fragments like comets and dwarf planets may be common ingredients of planetary systems.

Celestial Detective Work: White Dwarf Discovered Consuming Pluto-like Icy

University of Warwick astronomers have achieved a groundbreaking discovery that could transform our understanding of planetary systems outside our own. Their research focuses on the phenomena surrounding white dwarfs—dense remnants of stars—and the intriguing possibility that they might be absorbing icy, water-rich fragments from other celestial bodies. This finding not only sheds light on the composition of these distant systems but also highli…