A group of amateur astronomers was able to detect the collision and destruction of two icy giant planets.
Over the past few years, amateur astronomers have helped professional scientists make many important discoveries either through direct observations or by analyzing data obtained during various space missions. As a result of studying such data, it was possible to detect the collision of two giant planets, writes Universe Today.
Recently, amateur astronomer Arttu Sainio saw on social media a discussion among scientists about the unusual behavior of a Sun-like star that changed its brightness and became dimmer. He studied the data from the NEOWISE space telescope, which were obtained as a result of observing the star Asassn-21qj, and found that this star had previously decreased in brightness and also suddenly increased. Sainio shared his discovery on social media, and this led to more amateur astronomers joining the study. As a result, they made an incredible discovery.
Professional and amateur astronomers gathered all the available information and found that the change in the star’s brightness was due to the collision and destruction of two icy giant planets. The results of this study were published in the journal Nature.
For years, amateur astronomers and professional scientists have been observing the strange behavior of the star Asassn-21qj, located at a distance of 1800 light years from us. Its brightness began to decrease sharply, although, as it became known, this had already happened before, although signs of a sudden increase in the star’s brightness were also noticed in the archival data. And it was very unusual, so the authors of the study decided to find out what caused these events.
Photo: NASA
Scientists believe that there was a collision of ice giant planets, which are ten times larger than the Earth by mass and are at a distance of 2 to 16 AU from their
The study showed that these changes in the star’s brightness are related to the process of planet formation in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the star. In this disk of dust and gas, some planets may collide with each other. This is exactly what happened next to the distant star.
Scientists believe that there was a collision of icy giant planets, which are ten times larger than the Earth in mass and are located at a distance of 2 to 16 AU from their star. An astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 million kilometers.
Astronomers explain that the strong impact of the two planets created a hot remnant that led to an increase in the brightness of the star during the observations. After that, the movement of planetary debris against the background of the star caused its brightness to decrease.
