White Dwarfs Eat Earth-Like Planets For Breakfast A new
discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers
to find four white dwarf stars with stellar atmospheres
consisting of oxygen, magnesium, iron, and silicon. Through this
we are able to deduct that planets used to be found orbiting
around the star before being destroyed by the extreme tidal
gravitational forces and instability. So, here’s one doomsday
prediction to look forward to (and it may well happen): in a few
billion years when our sun runs out of fuel and bloats to a red
giant, in which it will shed large quantities of mass before
disintegrating into a white dwarf surrounded by a planetary
nebula into which the remains of the planets will rain down.
(Image credit: Mark A. Garlick/space-art.co.uk/University of
Warwick)