2023-10-13 14:15:28
An investigation has revealed the catastrophic collision between two planets of the type of Neptune and Uranus in another solar system. Among the effects of the collision, the decrease in brightness of the star of that solar system, similar to our Sun, stands out.
The research, carried out by the international team of Simon Lock, from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, was motivated by the detection of an anomaly in the light curve of the star. Specifically, that solar system doubled its brightness in infrared wavelengths about three years before the star began to dim in visible light.
A network of professional and amateur astronomers studied the star intensively, including tracking the star’s brightness changes over the next two years. The star was named ASASSN-21qj after the network of telescopes that first detected its dimming in light from the visible band of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Researchers have concluded that the most likely explanation is that two giant planets, the same type as Neptune and Uranus, collided, producing the infrared glow detected by NASA’s NEOWISE mission, whose spacecraft uses an infrared telescope with a Ideal sensitivity to detect asteroids, comets and also phenomena such as the one captured.
Both the calculations carried out by the authors of the study and the digital models in which they ran various simulations indicate that the temperature and size of the incandescent material, as well as the amount of time the glow has lasted, fit with what can be expected from the collision of two giant planets similar to Neptune or Uranus.
About three years after the increase in brightness of that solar system in the infrared band, the cloud of debris resulting from the impact moved in front of the star (from our visual perspective), and that was what caused the decrease in its brightness. in the visible light band.
Artist’s recreation of the huge bright planetary body produced by a planetary collision. In the foreground, fragments of ice and rock are thrown from the collision and will later come between Earth and the host star seen in the background of the image. (Illustration: Mark Garlick)
The dust cloud is expected to begin to disperse along the orbit of the collision remnant in the coming years, and a telltale scatter of light from this cloud could be detected with NASA’s ESA James Webb Space Telescope. (European Space Agency) and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and probably also with some other sufficiently sensitive telescopes.
And in the distant future, as Zoe Leinhardt, from the University of Bristol and co-author of the study, ventures, the mass of material around the remnant could condense to form an entourage of moons that will orbit around this new planet formed from the two previous.
The study is titled “A planetary collision afterglow and transit of the resulting debris cloud.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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