When A Star Like Our Sun Begins To Die. It Expands Into A Bloated Red Giant Star, Shedding Mass By Puffing Off Its Outer Layers. This Change Alters The Gravitational Influence The Star Has On Its Planetary System.


The Gravity Of The Remaining Large Planets Can Disrupt The Orbits Of Small Objects Like Asteroids Comets And

Moons Scattering Them Like Pinballs In An Arcade Game Into Exaggerated Oval Orbits.


As, The Red Giant Star Runs Out Of Its Nuclear Fuel, It Begins To Contract,

Creating A Compact White Dwarf Star, No Larger Than Earth. The Exaggerated Orbits Of The Wayward Objects May Bring Them Very Close To The Star. Where They

Experience Powerful Tidal Forces That Tear Them Apart Creating A Gas And Dust

Disk Around The White Dwarf. That Eventually Falls Onto The Star's Surface. Five Billion Years From Now, When Our Sun Is At The End Of Its Life Mercury, Venus And Earth Will Likely Be Completely Vaporized As The Sun Becomes A Red Giant. The Orbits Of Asteroids In The Main

Asteroid Belt Will Be Altered Eventually

Falling Onto The White Dwarf That Our

Sun Will Become

This Scenario Is Exactly What Is

Happening To A Nearby White Dwarf Star

Named

G23844 The Star's Death Throws Have So

Violently Disrupted Its Planetary System

That It Is Actively Siphoning Off Debris

From Both The System's Inner And Outer

Reaches

Using Archival Data From Hubble And

Other Nasa Space Observatories

Astronomers Have For The First Time

Observed A White Dwarf Star Consuming

Both Rocky Metallic And Icy Material

The Findings Are Intriguing Because Icy

Bodies Are Credited With Irrigating Dry

Rocky Planets Billions Of Years Ago

Comets And Asteroids Are Thought To Have

Hit Our Planet Delivering Water And

Sparking The Conditions Necessary For

Life As We Know It

The Makeup Of The Bodies Raining Onto

The White Dwarf Implies That Icy

Reservoirs Might Be Common Among

Planetary Systems

This White Dwarf Provides A Unique

Opportunity To Take Distant Planets

Apart And See What They Were Made Of

When They Were First Formed Around The Star