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VIRTUALISATION Earth-like and Venus-like planets collide. Could it happen to us?
VIRTUALISATION Earth-like and Venus-like planets collide. Could it happen to us? | Earth-like and Venus-like planets collide. Could it happen to us? |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Thursday, 25 September 2008 | |
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Three U.S. astronomers, from Tennessee State University, University of California (Los Angeles), and California Institute of Technology, announced on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, that they observed the resulting debris from the collision of the two planets, which are thought to be at least as big as the Earth and Venus. The observation, made in the x-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, was the first-time evidence of such a collision between two planets was seen. The astronomers said that the debris included a million times more material than what now orbits about our Sun. They think the two planets collided several hundred thousand years ago. Physics and astronomy professor and researcher Benjamin M. Zuckerman (from the University of California at Los Angeles), who worked on the analysis of this collision, stated, “It's as if Earth and Venus collided. Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system." [MSNBC: “What happens when worlds really collide?”] The star BD+20°307 is a binary star system that is thought by astronomers to be billions of years old--a mature star sytem composed to two stars. Both stars are similar in mass to our own Sun, along with having a similar temperature and size to our own star. The system is located about 300 light-years from our Sun in the constellation Aries. The two stars orbit each other through a common center of mass. The orbiting period is 3.42 days. American astronomer Gregory W. Henry (from Tennessee State University, Nashville), who worked with Zuckerman on this study, stated, “If any life was present on either planet, the massive collision would have wiped out everything in a matter of minutes ... the ultimate extinction event. A massive disk of infrared-emitting dust circling the star provides silent testimony to this sad fate." [MSNBC] He added, "By contrast with the massive crash in the BD+20 307 system, the collision of an asteroid with Earth 65 million years ago, the most favored explanation for the final demise of the dinosaurs, was a mere pipsqueak." The conclusions of their study will be published in the December 2008 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. These two planets were in a mature solar system like our own. Could something like this happen to Earth? Please read page two for the answer. |
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