This image of the debris disk around SDSS1228+1040 made from observations taken over twelve years. The application of Doppler Tomography results in an image of the velocities within the disk, which has an ‘inside-out’ structure, gas closer to the white dwarf appears further. The two dashed circles illustrated 0.64 and 0.2 times the radius of the Sun. Credit: University of Warwick
Research includes 1st image of ring system orbiting a white dwarf. The sight of an asteroid being ripped apart by a dead star and forming a glowing debris ring has been captured in an image for the first time. Comprised of dust particles and debris, the rings are formed by the star’s gravity tearing apart asteroids that came too close. Gas produced by collisions among the debris within the ring is illAsteroiduminated by ultraviolet rays from the star, causing it to emit a dark red glow.
Christopher Manser of University of Warwick’s Astrophysics Group et al investigated the remnants of planetary systems around white dwarf stars; in this instance, SDSS1228+1040. Whilst similar to the formation of Saturn’s rings, the scale of the white dwarf and its debris is many times greater in size. Christopher Manser explains: “The diameter of the gap inside of the debris ring is 700,000 kilometres, approximately half the size of the Sun and the same space could fit both Saturn and its rings, which are only around 270,000 km across. At the same time, the white dwarf is 7x smaller than Saturn but weighs 2500 times more.”
To acquire the image they used Doppler tomography, which is very similar to Computed Tomography (CT) routinely used in hospitals. Both methods take scans from many different angles which are then combined in a computer into an image.
While in CT, the machine moves around the patient, the disk the researchers observed is rotating very slowly by itself meaning they had to take data over 12 yrs. Discussing what the researchers saw in the image Mr Manser says: “The image we get from the processed data shows us that these systems are truly disc-like, and reveal many structures that we cannot detect in a single snapshot. The image shows a spiral-like structure which we think is related to collisions between dust grains in the debris disc.”
Systems such as SDSS1228+1040 are a glimpse at the future of our own solar system once the Sun runs out of fuel. By observing these systems, we can answer questions such as: Are other planetary systems like our own? What will be the fate of our own solar system?
“Over the past decade, we have learned that remnants of planetary systems around white dwarfs are ubiquitous, and over thirty debris disks have been found by now. While most of them are in a stable state, just like Saturn’s rings, a handful are seen to change, and it is those systems that can tell us something about how these rings are formed.” https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/asteroid_ripped_apart
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