The Hubble Space Telescope successfully observed that a celestial body similar to Halley's comet was split and dropped by a white dwarf

A huge telescope floating in space "Hubble Space TelescopeIn the observation using ice, the giant comet-like celestial body made of ice was broken down by the gravity of the white dwarfs and succeeded in observing the scattered scattered in the atmosphere of the stars for the first time in the world. It is known that this comet has a feature called a sibling of a well-known Halley's comet, which was hundreds of thousands of times larger than Halley's comet.

Hubble finds big brother of Halley's Comet ripped apart by white dwarf | ESA / Hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1703/

This phenomenon was confirmed in the white dwarf "WD 1425 + 540" at a distance of 170 light-years in the direction of Uzaka. The research team is located at Hubble Space Telescope and HawaiiW · M · Keck ObservatoryWe observed that a huge comet fell into a white dwarf as it was destroyed.

ByHubble ESA

According to the research team, this comet is made up of components that closely resemble Halley's comet, has a magnitude of 100,000 times that of Halley's comet, and has twice the moisture content of Halley's comet. As a result of using spectral analysis, it is known that this comet contains components important for the birth of life such as carbon, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen, and the fragments of the comet falling into the white dwarf for the first time in the world It is confirmed that nitrogen is contained.

About the results of this discovery, I am the main author of the paperEuropean Southern Observatory"As is well known, nitrogen is an important component of life, and this comet contains a lot of nitrogen and its ratio is higher than that observed in the solar system I am doing it. "

Although it was confirmed so far that debris of rock celestial objects falling into a white dwarf has been confirmed so far, it was the first time that it was confirmed that a comet made of ice fell and contaminated about. In the white dwarf, the entire star expands from the stage of the "main line" in which the stars like the sun in the solar system stably perform the fusion reactionRed giantIt is a star that entered the stage of only getting cold at the end after going through the stage and it is clear that the comet observed this time survived the state of high fever by the huge red giant star.

This comet exists in the solar systemKuiper beltIt is thought that the planets' eggs gathered and floated away from the orbit and attracted by the gravity of the white dwarfs at the center of the planetary system and split / fall. The research team wondered why this comet had come out of the belt's orbit and entered into the collision orbit with the white dwarf, the research team says, "As the unknown celestial body collapsed the gravity balance, the trajectory drifted, collision course We entered two arguments, "A dwarf star with a white dwarf makes the belt uneasy and entered a collision course", and a change has occurred depending on the combination of either or both of these It is thought that it is thing.

ByNASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

In this observation, it is revealed that existence like the Kuiper belt in the solar system exists also in other star system, and there is a celestial body containing water. This result becomes a clue to know the formation of other star systems and it may become a big hint to consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life.