The team thinks the planet was destroyed as its ageing star expanded in size
Posted on 08/21/2012 7:36:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Rising temperatures near the cores of red giants cause these elderly stars to expand in size, a process which will cause any nearby planets to be destroyed...
Spectroscopic analysis of BD+48 740 revealed that it contained an abnormally high amount of lithium, a rare element created primarily during the Big Bang 14 billion years ago.
Lithium is easily destroyed in stars, so its high abundance in this ageing star is very unusual...
The second piece of evidence discovered by the astronomers is the highly elliptical orbit of a newly discovered planet around the red giant star. The previously undetected world is at least 1.6 times as massive as Jupiter.
Co-author Andrzej Niedzielski of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland, said that orbits as eccentric as this one are uncommon in planetary systems around evolved stars.
"In fact, the BD+48 740 planet's orbit is the most elliptical one detected so far," he added.
Because gravitational interactions between planets are often responsible for such peculiar orbits, the astronomers suspect that the dive of the missing planet toward its host star before it became a giant could have given the surviving massive planet a burst of energy.
This boost would have propelled it into its present unusual orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
The team thinks the planet was destroyed as its ageing star expanded in size
I thought this thread was about Oprah falling off the wagon again.
Wow.
Lithium production is a normal branch of the proton-proton fusion process and will predominate if the star is large enough for the core to remain between 15-25 million degrees.
I suppose I’m going to have to read the actual article.
What planet is John Goodman eating now?
Hmmm. This would explain Rosie O’Porker’s heart attack.
Not Black Hole; Red Giant.
“Star is caught devouring planet”
Caught, huh? Well, send it to it’s room.
You’d think the lithium would settle it down a little and keep it from going around devouring things...
-Star
:’D
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