This artist’s impression shows the magnetic white dwarf WD 0816’310 , where astronomers have found a scar imprinted on its surface as a result of having ingested planetary debris. (ESO/L. Calçada image)
This artist's impression shows the magnetic white dwarf WD 0816'310 , where astronomers have found a scar imprinted on its surface as a result of having ingested planetary debris. (ESO/L. Calçada image) Western researcher part of team that found a unique signature of a star ingesting surrounding planets and asteroids When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can expand to ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile, researchers, including Western physics and astronomy professor emeritus John Landstreet , have found a unique signature of this process for the first time, a scar imprinted on the surface of a white dwarf star. The results are published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters . Landstreet, an expert on the evolutionary life history of stars, played a pivotal role in the discovery. His contributions were crucial in interpreting the data, particularly in understanding how the magnetic field affects the material distribution on the white dwarf star's surface.
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