Shivering 'zombie' object spawns planets after death

Astronomers have discovered a 2nd generation protoplanetary disk around a binary star system of white dwarf zombies, when the first generation planets have long since been destroyed.

Research led by Dr Jacques Klusa from the KU Leuven Institute of Astronomy (Belgium) analyzed the giant disks of gas and dust around binary star systems, and discovered something strange in some binary star systems with one of the two stars. star is dead.

Graphic depicting a 2nd generation protoplanetary disk around a binary star system where 1 of 2 has become a "zombie".

A dead star is something that exists as a white dwarf, a "zombie" left over after a star like our Sun runs out of energy and dies. In theory, the planets of the dead star also die on the day the parent star dies, and it seems that the planets in the binary systems mentioned above do.

However, according to Sci-News, astronomers have identified an unbelievable mechanism. When a white dwarf exists in a binary system, the companion star's gravity causes material from the "zombie" to be ejected, forming a flat and rotating disk similar to the protoplanetary disk commonly observed at Earth's surface. young stars.

They identified numerous signs of planet formation in these dusty disks, and concluded that it must be a "second-generation" protoplanetary disk and nothing else.

This unusual planet-forming mechanism has overturned all astronomical theories. More surprisingly, it's popular. The team looked at 85 evolved binary systems, and 10 percent of them had this unexpected protoplanetary disk.