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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/21/nasa-images-of-cosmic-catastrophe-give-glimpse-of-earths-ultimate-fate?CMP=fb_guPublished by: THE GUARDIAN on 21 Oct 2015
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Earth’s final days are in the distant future, but the the death of a far-off solar system revealed in images from Kepler 2 shows how the world might end The destruction of a solar system has been captured for the first time by astronomers who said the violent events provide a grim glimpse ofEarth’s ultimate fate.
Images taken by Nasa’s Kepler 2 space mission reveal the rocky remains of a world that is being torn apart as it spirals around a dead star, or white dwarf, in the constellation of Virgo, 570 light years from Earth.
Scientists spotted chunks of shredded planet swinging around the white dwarf every 4.5 to five hours, placing them in an orbit about 520,000 miles from the star, about twice the distance between the Earth and the moon.
“This is something no human has seen before,” said Andrew Vanderburg at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “We’re watching a solar system get destroyed.”
Sun-like stars are driven by nuclear reactions that [...]
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Who are The Guardian?The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference".
