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Astronomers using Hubble discovered a white dwarf that consumed an icy, Pluto-like world, revealing new insights into how water and life’s building blocks may spread across galaxies.

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A Star’s Final Feast Unveiled

Astronomers peering through the Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered extraordinary evidence: a white dwarf star, a stellar ember left behind after a star’s death, appears to have consumed an icy body resembling Pluto. The finding sheds light on how water and organic compounds the essentials for life might be distributed across planetary systems beyond our own.

From Sun-Like Giant to Stellar Remnant

The white dwarf, situated about 255 light-years away in the Milky Way, is a compact relic of a once-sizable star. At just 57% the mass of our sun yet packed into a sphere no larger than Earth, its density is staggering nearly 190,000 times Earth’s mass squeezed into the same volume.

Like all stars with up to eight times the mass of our sun, its life cycle ended in dramatic fashion. After burning through its hydrogen fuel, the star swelled into a red giant before collapsing and ejecting its outer layers. What remained was the compact, glowing core: the white dwarf. Our own sun is expected to meet this fate billions of years from now.

Evidence of a Cosmic Collision

Until now, astronomers had documented white dwarfs consuming rocky remnants asteroids, moons, and even fragments of planets. But this case marks the first strong evidence of an icy world being torn apart and swallowed.

Chemical “fingerprints” detected on the white dwarf’s surface revealed unusually high levels of nitrogen, a signature pointing not to comets but to icy, nitrogen-rich worlds like Pluto. Researchers believe the dwarf’s intense gravity ripped apart the body or perhaps a large fragment of it and pulled the remains onto its surface.

Insights from the Experts

“The white dwarf likely accreted material from the crust and mantle of a Pluto-like world,” explained Snehalata Sahu, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick and lead author of the study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Her colleague, Boris Gänsicke, added: “Whether it was an entire Pluto-sized body or just a piece torn off during a collision, once it strayed too close, the star’s gravity stretched and shattered it before pulling it in.”

The Power of Hubble

The discovery was made possible through Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, which analyzes ultraviolet light to track the chemistry of distant cosmic bodies. Over at least 13 years, the white dwarf has been continuously accreting material at a rate comparable to a blue whale’s mass crashing onto it every second.

Implications for Water and Life

The significance extends far beyond this single star system. Our solar system hosts countless icy bodies, especially beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt. These frozen reservoirs, including Pluto and comets, are believed to have delivered much of Earth’s water along with vital organic compounds.

Sahu noted that similar processes may occur in other planetary systems: “Water-rich bodies act as delivery systems for the basic ingredients of life. Detecting them around other stars confirms that reservoirs of life’s building blocks exist beyond our solar system.”

What This Means for Habitability

The finding strengthens the case that habitable environments may be more common across the galaxy than once thought. If icy bodies can survive long enough in distant planetary systems and deliver water to rocky worlds, the chances of life elsewhere may be higher than previously assumed.

A Glimpse Into Our Own Future

As humbling as the discovery is, it also serves as a preview of our own solar system’s destiny. Billions of years from now, the sun will collapse into a white dwarf, and the surviving planets may face a similar fate gravitationally shredded and consumed by their fading parent star.

✅ (Disclaimer: This article is based on peer-reviewed research and verified scientific findings. Interpretations reflect current knowledge in astronomy but remain subject to further discoveries.)

 

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