NASA News: Kepler Catches Movement of Star as It Tears Mini Planet Apart
In what could be one of the biggest finds in the history of NASA's theory that a white dwarf star could possibly "cannibalize" planets roaming its solar system, the Kepler spacecraft has come across the strange movements of a small planet about 570 light years away in the constellation Virgo.
In an article published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, NASA says it has obtained "strong evidence" that a "tiny, rocky object" is being slowly ripped as it transits around the said white dwarf.
Andrew Vanderburg, lead author of the paper, said, "We are for the first time witnessing a miniature 'planet' ripped apart by intense gravity, being vaporized by starlight and raining rocky material onto its star."
The Kepler mission reportedly focused its attention on a "patch" that seemed to move in an unusual manner as compared to the other objects in the constellation. Instead of producing the usual symmetric U-shaped pattern that most planets trod, the object showed "an asymmetric elongated slope pattern" that indicates that it could be vaporizing.
For many years, scientists have been suspecting that heavy elements surrounding white dwarf atmospheres, such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and silicon, are the result of the white dwarf's intense gravity that could have torn a small planet apart.
The small planet is estimated to be just the same as Ceres in size. Ceres is the dwarf planet located in between the orbits of giant planets Mars and Jupiter. It was approximated earlier to be as large as the state of Texas.
NASA says the new discovery could be a huge lead to proving that the theory saying the dwarf planet's gravity can destroy other small planets is no longer just a speculation but solid truth. Steve Howell, K2 project scientist at Ames, also notes that the new information gives the world a more significant understanding of how the K2 works and how its data gathering processes contribute to the science community.
