Scientists Glimpse 'End of the World' in Space Dust Study

[ALien]

Scientists have found what could be a glimpse of the end of the world during research into the make-up of dying stars.

Dust particles contained in a type of burnt-out star known as "white dwarfs" could be the remnants of planets similar to our own, they concluded.

An international team, which included Dr Jay Farihi of the University of Leicester, found evidence that between one and three per cent of white dwarfs could once have had their own solar systems.

When stars similar to the sun get to the end of their life they swell up to become giant bodies known as "red giants".

As a red giant burns out, the outer layers blow off eventually leaving it as a skeleton star - or white dwarf.

Using Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope, the team analysed the gassy atmospheres around existing white dwarfs, some of which contain particles of dust.

They found that the dust is made from the same basic materials as asteroids and rocky planets.

It suggests that the debris could be the remains of Earth-like planets which were engulfed by a swelling red giant before it turned into a white dwarf.

"What we have seen is a possible fate for our own solar system," Dr Farihi, who is presenting the findings at a conference at the University of Hertfordshire, told The Times.

"Many of the systems we are studying will have been similar to our own.

"It's a possibility that some of them could once have held life."

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[SmokingMan]

This theory is probable, however, not exactly breaking news. Most astronomers and geologists have expected that the fate of our sun is like this:

In approximately a billion years the sun will have swelled up into what we call a red giant. It will have grown to about 140 million km. in diameter, large enough to engulf the orbit of Mercury and destroy it. The surface of Venus will be about 1700 degrees C, and the surface of the earth will be about 1400 degrees C (easily hot enough to melt rock) Eventually, after this the sun will collapse into a white dwarf. This is the most excepted currently running theory concerning the future of the sun.