star L2 Puppis tagged posts

This is a schematic view of the candidate planet’s orbit in L2 Puppis disk. Credit: © P. Kervella (CNRS / U. de Chile / Observatoire de Paris / LESIA)

Old Star offers sneak preview of the future. What will happen to Earth when, in a few billion years’ time, the Sun is a hundred times bigger than it is today? Using the most powerful radio telescope in the world, an international team of astronomers has set out to look for answers in the star L2 Puppis. 5 billion years ago, this star was very similar to the Sun as it is today.

“Five billion years from now, the Sun will have grown into a red giant star, more than a hundred times larger than its current size,” says Professor Leen Decin from the KU Leuven Institute of Astronomy...