Abby BeallNov 15, 2022
Chrislintott

Posting again for #Astrodon: Excellent, interesting study of white dwarf pollution by planets used to infer planet composition, suggesting rapid planet formation alongside star formation.

Press release here: tinyurl.com/pollutingplanets

Paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01815-8

Rapid formation of exoplanetesimals revealed by white dwarfs - Nature Astronomy

Observational evidence from planetary systems around white dwarfs shows that planetesimal formation occurs during the first few hundred thousand years after cloud collapse. Iron accreted by these white dwarfs must have been formed by short-lived radioactive nuclides driving iron core formation in planetesimals that form together with the parent star.

Nature
Nov 14, 2022 at 4:47pmWeb
Show threadChrislintottNov 14, 2022
Should have been tinyurl.com/pollutingplanets
Show threadWOMUMPNov 14, 2022
@Chrislintott Since you're here on mastodon.social, there's an "Edit" button (in the web UI). So you could correct the original if you wished.
Show threadChrislintottNov 14, 2022
@womump ah! Couldn’t find it on the app. Thanks.
Show threadJulianne DalcantonNov 14, 2022
@Chrislintott This has been my absolute favorite thing for more than a decade. Such an incredibly clever bit of noticing and thinking.