Earth may still have another future without being destroyed by the sun

Simulation of a planet near a white dwarf

In 6 billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant star, a process that could engulf Mercury and Venus. For a long time, we thought Earth was likely to be on the list of "victims".

But perhaps the Earth can finally escape that tragic fate, according to The New York Times .

Scientists have discovered a rocky planet orbiting a star that has passed through its red giant phase. The planet, currently about 4,000 light-years away, now orbits a white dwarf, the burned-out remains of a star.

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Importantly, the former planet appears to have been about the same distance from its central star as the Earth-Sun is today.

Over billions of years, the planet was pushed away, and is now twice the Earth-Sun distance from its star, before the star could engulf it in its self-destruction.

And this is likely the first rocky planet observed orbiting a white dwarf.

"We don't know yet whether Earth can survive," said astrophysicist Keming Zhang of the University of California, San Diego. "If it could, Earth would probably look like the star system we just described," he said in a report published in the journal Nature Astronomy .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/trai-dat-co-the-van-con-tuong-lai-khac-ma-khong-bi-mat-troi-huy-diet-185240927110119612.htm