Starset Society 中文镜像站

天文学家发现了一颗在恒星消失过程中存活下来的行星

Astronomers Found a Planet That Survived Its Star’s Death

When our sun enters its death throes in about five billion years, it will incinerate our planet and then dramatically collapse into a dead ember known as a white dwarf. But the fate of more distant planets, such as Jupiter or Saturn, is less clear.

当我们的太阳在大约50亿年后进入垂死挣扎时,它会把我们的星球烧成灰烬,然后戏剧性地坍缩成一团死灰,也就是白矮星。但是像木星和土星这样的遥远行星的命运就不那么明朗了。

On Wednesday in the journal Nature, astronomers reported observing a tantalizing preview of our solar system’s afterlife: a Jupiter-size planet orbiting a white dwarf some 6,500 light years from here.

在周三的《自然》杂志上,天文学家报告说,他们观测到了一颗令人着迷的太阳系来世:一颗木星大小的行星围绕着一颗离这里约6500光年的白矮星运行。

Known as MOA-2010-BLG-477Lb, the planet occupies a comparable orbit to Jupiter. The discovery not only offers a glimpse into our cosmic future, it raises the possibility that any life on “survivor” worlds may endure the deaths of their stars.

这颗行星被称为MOA-2010-BLG-477Lb,其运行轨道与木星相当。这一发现不仅让我们瞥见了宇宙的未来,还提高了“幸存者”星球上的任何生命都可能忍受其恒星死亡的可能性。

“While there is quite a lot of evidence of rocky planetary debris orbiting around white dwarfs, we have very few data points of intact planets,” said Joshua Blackman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania and lead author of the study.

塔斯马尼亚大学博士后研究员、该研究的主要作者Joshua Blackman说:“虽然有相当多的证据表明,有岩石行星碎片围绕白矮星运行,但我们几乎没有完整行星的数据点。”

STARSET_Mirror