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Study sheds light on the white dwarf star, likely destroyer of our solar system (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Huge gravity of these dense stars, which have burned all their own fuel, rips apart smaller planetary bodies

It’s the end of the world, not quite as we know it.

Scientists from the University of Warwick and other universities have studied the impact white dwarfs – end-of-state stars that have burned all their fuel – have on planetary systems such as our own solar system.

When asteroids, moons and planets get close to white dwarfs, their huge gravity rips these small planetary bodies into smaller and smaller pieces, which continue to collide, eventually grinding them into dust.

While the researchers said Earth would probably be swallowed by our host star, the sun, before it becomes a white dwarf, the rest of our solar system, including asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, as well as moons of Jupiter, ultimately may be shredded by the sun in a white star form.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That is not the mass increasing. It is the size. Size and mass are not the same thing.

Imagine a marshmallow, and a stone of the same size. Would they weigh the same?

edit: Nevermind, I understand you're just adding the mass of the inner planets to it. That's legit. It's small though. It is also counteracted by the sun steadily losing mass as it shines. It kicks out all this energy and solar wind, right? Conservation of mass and energy says that has to cost something.