Odd X-Ray Signal From Helix Nebula Could Be From Star Destroying Planet

Space.com

An unusual x-ray signal from the Helix Nebula, first detected in 19180, could stem from a star destroying a nearby planet.  Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

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00:00Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe

00:05Helix Nebula

00:07After tracking a puzzling x-ray signal from a dying star for decades,

00:15astronomers may have finally explained its source.

00:17The old star might have destroyed a nearby planet.

00:21Dating back to 1980, x-ray missions have picked up an unusual reading from the center of the Helix Nebula.

00:28Using today's most powerful x-ray missions,

00:30NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton,

00:34they now have a much clearer picture of this decades-long enigma.

00:39The Helix Nebula is a so-called planetary nebula,

00:42which is the late-game stage of a star that has ejected its outer layers of gas

00:46and left behind a dimmer and smaller ember of a star known as a white dwarf.

00:52In previous decades, the Einstein X-ray Observatory and ROSAT telescopes

00:57detected highly energetic x-rays coming from the white dwarf at the center of the Helix Nebula

01:02named WD-2226-210, located only 650 light-years from Earth.

01:10White dwarfs like WD-2226-210 do not typically give off strong x-rays.

01:15A new study featuring the data from Chandra and XMM-Newton

01:20may finally have settled the question of what is causing these x-rays from WD-2226-210.

01:28A team of astronomers thinks this x-ray signal could be from planetary debris pulled onto the white dwarf

01:33as the death knell from a planet that was destroyed by the white dwarf in the Helix Nebula.

01:38Previously, scientists determined that a Neptune-sized planet is in a very close orbit around the white dwarf,

01:46completing one revolution in less than three days.

01:49The researchers in this latest study conclude that there could have been a planet like Jupiter

01:54even closer to the star.

01:57The besieged planet could have initially been a considerable distance from the white dwarf,

02:02but then migrated inward by interacting with the gravity of other planets in the system.

02:06Once it approached close enough to the white dwarf,

02:10the gravity of the star would have partially or completely torn the planet apart.

02:14The mysterious signal astronomers have been seeing could be caused by the debris from the shattered planet

02:20falling onto the white dwarf's surface that is being heated to glow in x-rays.

02:24If this result is confirmed, it would be the first case of a planet seen to be destroyed

02:29by the central star in a planetary nebula.

02:36A

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