White Dwarf's Magnetic Field Saved Solar System From Rogue Star

Wednesday - November 8 2023, 21:32 UTC - 1 year ago

A cosmic catastrophe was predicted to occur thousands of years from now when a white dwarf star approaches our solar system. However, thanks to modern technology, new calculations now show that the white dwarf is unlikely to enter our solar system at all, rendering the danger obsolete.

A huge cosmic catastrophe has been averted! A massive rogue dead star was initially predicted to brush through our solar system roughly 29,000 years from now. Fortunately, updated calculations show that our planet will be spared from the damage wrought by this runaway star. In 2022, researchers utilized data from the Gaia space telescope to project the trajectory of WD 0810-353, a rogue white dwarf star .

A white dwarf is the hot and dense remnant left behind when a Sun-like star reaches the end of its life cycle. Recent investigations have uncovered a surprising twist: it appears that this white dwarf may not be approaching our solar system at all. "We found that the approach speed measured by the Gaia project is incorrect, and the close encounter predicted between WD0810–353 and the sun is actually not going to happen," said astronomer Stefano Bagnulo in an official release of European Southern Observatory (ESO) .

Bagnulo further added: "In fact, WD0810–353 may not even be moving towards the sun at all. That's one less cosmic hazard we have to worry about!" New calculations using VLT A rogue star is one that does not belong to any particular star system or galaxy and instead drifts aimlessly through interstellar space. Had this rogue star entered the solar system, it would have wreaked havoc. The gravitational influence of a rogue star passing through our solar system would disturb the orbits of planets and various celestial objects, causing major changes in their locations .

It would also cause disruption in the Oort Cloud, a remote area of the solar system containing a large number of comets. The gravitational consequences of the rogue star's passage might cause some of these comets to be redirected toward the inner solar system, potentially presenting threats to Earth and other planets. However, humanity may now breathe a sigh of relief because there is no longer a threat .

The new calculations were generated from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is located in northern Chile's Atacama Desert. White dwarf's huge magnetic field Astronomers used the VLT's high-tech FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument to conduct a new observation of the rogue star. The primary objective of this observation was to obtain highly precise spectral data from the white dwarf .

This data was collected in order to investigate whether the white dwarf's extremely strong magnetic field might be influencing the interpretation of the Gaia telescope's findings. The initial Gaia observations did not take into account the large magnetic field of this rogue star. "Unusually, this old white dwarf also has a huge magnetic field. In astronomy, magnetic fields are crucial to understand many physical aspects of a star and not considering them can lead to misinterpretations of physical phenomena," said Eva Villaver, an astronomer at the Astrobiology Center in Spain and co-author of the study .

Initially, researchers calculated the white dwarf's radial velocity and concluded that it was nearing our solar system. Typically, this computation is performed b measuring the star's redshift — the wavelength of light shifted toward the red end of the spectrum due to its relative movement.