At the minute the Sun keeps itself going by merging hydrogen into helium and other much heavier elements, but in 5 or so billion years it is going to run out of hydrogen. When that takes place, the Sun will make a desperate attempt to keep going by fusing helium.
Its generally been believed that if the Sun swells beyond the orbit of Earth, the atmospheric drag will cause our little world to spiral into the Sun. The inner planetary system merely cant endure the red huge phase of our star, therefore will be consumed in the end. But this might not be the case, as a new study in Nature shows.
The world, nicknamed Halla, orbits its star at half the distance of the Earth from the Sun. What makes Halla uncommon is that its star is in the later stage of its red giant phase.
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At the moment the Sun keeps itself going by fusing hydrogen into helium and other heavier elements, however in five or so billion years it is going to run out of hydrogen. The planet, nicknamed Halla, orbits its star at half the range of the Earth from the Sun. The red giant star might have originally been a pair of stars, making Halla a Tatooine-like world. The merger of the 2 stars might have bypassed the large red giant stage, indicating that Halla was never ever engulfed by the star. A merger of two stars could have created a cloud of gas surrounding the merged star, out of which Halla formed.
Using information from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the group validated that the star is progressively burning helium in its core. This implies the star is past its largest red huge phase and remains in a duration of stability before its core finally settles to end up being a white dwarf. Based upon stellar designs, throughout its shift from hydrogen burning to helium burning, the stars radius would have been 1.5 times that of Hallas orbit.
Simply put, it seems that Halla is a world that was taken in by its star and lived to tell the tale. Its not clear how this is possible. One idea is that the world originally had a more far-off orbit, and during the red huge phase it migrated closer to the star. Another is that as a big gas giant, Halla could endure what smaller Earth-like planets could not.
The red giant star might have initially been a set of stars, making Halla a Tatooine-like world. The merger of the two stars could have bypassed the big red huge stage, indicating that Halla was never ever swallowed up by the star. A merger of 2 stars could have produced a cloud of gas surrounding the merged star, out of which Halla formed.
Earth may still be doomed. However this discovery suggests that isnt a certainty. Life in the world will be gone long before our worlds end of days, however it is possible our world can still endure a journey through an excellent hell and back.
Referral: Hon, Marc, et al. “A close-in giant planet escapes engulfment by its star.” Nature 618 (2023 ): 917-920.
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