Scientists Capture Image of Dead Star Tearing Apart an Asteroid

For the first time, scientists have captured the image of an asteroid that was being torn apart by a dead star leading to the formation of a glowing debris ring resembling the disk of Saturn. The ultraviolet rays from the star illuminated the gas produced due to collisions within the debris ring causing it to emit a dark, red light.

According to Christopher Manser from the Astrophysics Group of the University of Warwick, scientists have been already aware of these debris disks that are enshrouding white dwarfs however, this is the first time that they chanced upon one of these disks, providing pivotal information about these star systems. It’s about half the size of our Sun, and the same space that this ring occupies could fit Saturn and its rings.

The glowing ring is similar to planet Saturn’s ring but greater many times in size. White dwarf stars form when medium-sized stars reach the end of their lives, shrink down, and become very dense. Researchers from the University of Warwick in England published a new study this week to discuss their new discovery, a white dwarf with rings.

Manser said that scientists knew about the presence of such eerie rings around white dwarfs for more than two decades, but it is only now that one such ring was captured by a camera.

Both methods take scans from many different angles which are then combined on a computer into an image.

Debris rings have been found around other stars, However, the imaging of SDSS1228+1040 is unique – it gives us an unprecedented insight into these systems’ structure. “At the same time, the white dwarf is seven times smaller than Saturn but weighs 2500 times more”, Manser continued, highlighting another interesting point in his team’s study. The disk is moving at such a slow pace around the dwarf that the researchers took 20 years to create this single picture.

To see the “CT scan” of the dead star with rings, visit the University of Warwick website.

This data was collected over a period of 12 years beginning from 2003 to 2015 where the disk is slowly rotating on its own. Within the disc they noticed a spiral-like structure which was probably triggered by collisions between dust particles in the ring.

The researchers suggest that systems such as SDSS1228+1040 are a glimpse at the future of our own solar system once the Sun runs out of fuel.

There have been more than 30 debris disks discovered so far and most are stable. “However, we could not have imagined the exquisite details that are now visible in this image constructed from twelve years of data – it was definitely worth the wait”, Manser’s colleague, Boris Gänsicke, said in the release.