Chemical analysis reveals … a quarter of outer binary stars swallow their planets Italy

Millions of stars like the Sun are nearby. Without a way to identify hopeful targets, searching for Earth-like planets is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

An international team of astronomers has discovered that the Sun and other galaxies are swallowing up some planets. It came inside A statement Published by Lorenzo Spina, Fellow of the Postdoctoral Research Institute, at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics.

The researcher manipulated the results Studying It was published in “Nature Astronomy” on August 30, which studies the nature of the rotation of exoplanet systems with stars similar to the Sun, and explores the properties of these planets by examining the chemical composition of their systems. Such a study comes in the context of research on how the planets in the solar system formed and their properties.

20% to 35% of sun-like stars eat their planets (Getty Images)

Confused Exoplanet systems

In his article, researcher Lorenzo says that about 30 years after the first discovery of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, we discovered that planetary systems are common in the galaxy.

The planets in our solar system are completely different from the orbits around the sun because the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun in fixed and semi-circular orbits, which means that the planets have changed a lot since they first formed.

But many planetary systems orbiting other stars have been affected by a very chaotic past. The relatively quiet history of our solar system has helped life to flourish on Earth, which will help us explore other worlds that contain life.

According to Lorenzo’s article, the international team studied the confusion of other planetary systems, and found that 20% to 35% of sun – like stars eat their planets, and that more than a quarter of the planets (or 27 percent, to be exact) orbited stars like the sun. Very confusing and dynamic.

Lorenzo says astronomers have seen many exoplanet systems where large or medium-sized planets have moved heavily, and that the gravitational pull of these exiled planets has disturbed the orbits of other planets or pushed them into unstable orbits.

In binary star systems, when one of them swallows a planet, it makes a difference in its chemical composition (European Southern Laboratory)

Study and analysis of exoplanet systems

Exoplanet systems are called binary star systems, and these two stars revolve around each other, and two stars are usually formed from the same gas, so they are expected to contain a combination of the same elements.

Thus, if a planet falls on one of the two stars, it will melt into the outer layer of the star. This could alter the chemical composition of the star, which means we see more elements forming iron-like rocky planets.

The team analyzed and studied the chemical composition of stars in binary systems, and by analyzing the spectrum of light they produce, they included 107 binary systems with stars similar to the Sun, so the number of stars with more planetary objects than them is sub-star. In the results of the selection and analysis, there were 3 things that add to the vague evidence for the chemical differences found between the binary pairs, namely:

There are 3 chemical differences between the stars that swallowed the planets and their companions (Getty Images)

First, stars with a thin outer layer are richer in iron than their counterparts, and this is consistent with eating planets because when planetary materials are diluted in a thin outer layer, it causes more change in the chemical composition of the layer.

Second, iron-rich stars and other rock elements have more lithium than their counterparts because lithium is quickly destroyed by stars, while it is preserved on planets. So much of the lithium in the star must have been reached after the star was created, which corresponds to the notion that lithium was carried by a planet until it was eaten by the star.

Third, stars with more iron than their peers contain more iron than similar stars in the galaxy, but the stars themselves record an excess of carbon, which is a turbulent element that rocks do not carry, so these stars are chemically enriched with rocks from planets or planetary objects. .

Study results indicate a breakthrough in stellar astronomy and exoplanet research (Getty Images)

Study opportunities

According to Lorenzo, the study’s findings reflect a breakthrough in astronomical and exoplanet studies because they reveal that planetary food can change the chemical composition of stars, such as the Sun, but much of their planetary structure is subject to much change in the past. Unlike our solar system.

The study also opens up the possibility that chemical analysis could be used to identify stars that could host real isotopes of our Pacific solar system.

In conclusion, Lorenzo claims that the sun has relatively millions of stars. Without a way to identify promising targets, searching for Earth 2.0 planets is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

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