Foreign media news that recently, astronomers have made a shocking discovery on a white dwarf star in the Milky Way - an obvious "metal scar". After digging deeper, scientists speculate that the scar may be the remains of a planet that was swallowed by the star.
The white dwarf, named WD 0816-310, is located just 63 light-years away from Earth and is a superdense death star. The metal scars found on its surface this time have aroused great interest among scientists. Because it has been thought that planets and asteroid fragments that have been swallowed by white dwarfs should be evenly distributed on the surface of the star. However, WD 0816-310 is clearly different, as it appears to have a distinct metal scar on its surface, as if it has been locked in place by some force.
According to a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, it may be the star's magnetic field at work. When a star devours a planet, its powerful magnetic field may lock the planet's remnants in a specific location, creating the metallic scars we observe.
White dwarfs are the embers of sun-like stars that burn up and slowly cool. They are "dead", but are still eating away at the fragments of the planetary system around them. This fate may one day befall our sun, and may even lead to the eventual destruction of the earth. Therefore, an in-depth study of this phenomenon will not only help us understand the evolution of stars, but may also provide important insights for the future of the Earth.
The discovery was made possible by observations by the Very Large Telescope of Chile. The researchers used the telescope to make continuous observations of WD 0816-310 for two months, during which they noticed that the metal scars appeared to match the changes in the magnetic field of the white dwarf. This suggests that the star may have "funnel" matter into the magnetic poles through its magnetic field, leaving behind the scars we observed.
This discovery has changed our understanding of how white dwarfs disperse and engulf the remnants of planets, bringing new research directions and challenges to the field of astronomy.