Earth may still have another future without being destroyed by the sun

Simulating a planet near a white dwarf star.

In six billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant. This process could "conquer" both Mercury and Venus. For a long time, we thought that Earth was likely to be among the "victims."

However, perhaps the Earth can finally escape that tragic fate, according to The New York Times .

Scientists have discovered a rocky planet orbiting a star that has gone through its red giant phase. The planet, now about 4,000 light-years from Earth, is now in orbit of a white dwarf, the remnant of a star that has burned out all its energy.

What could be the reasons why humanity might be wiped off the face of the earth?

Importantly, the planet previously appeared to be at the same distance from its central star as the Earth-Sun relationship is today.

Over billions of years, the planet has been pushed away, and is now twice as far from its central star as the Earth-Sun distance, before the central star can engulf it in its self-destruction process.

And this is most likely the first rocky planet observed orbiting a white dwarf star.

"We don't yet know whether Earth could survive," according to astrophysicist Keming Zhang of the University of California, San Diego. "If it could, Earth would probably be like the star system we just described," he stated in a report published in the journal Nature Astronomy .

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/trai-dat-co-the-van-con-tuong-lai-khac-ma-khong-bi-mat-troi-huy-diet-185240927110119612.htm